Poisoning is the main cause of injury death in the United States (1). Drugs-both illicit and pharmaceutical-are the major cause of poisoning deaths,accounting for 90% of poisoning deaths in 2011. Misuse or abuse of prescription drugs, including opioid-analgesic pain relievers, or is responsible for much of the recent increase in drug-poisoning deaths (2). This report highlights trends in drug-poisoning deaths involving opioid analgesics (referred to as opioid-analgesic poisoning deaths) and updates previous Data Briefs on this topic (1,3).
Source: cdc.gov