January 23, 2004 |
Treatment Admissions in Urban and Rural Areas Involving Abuse of Narcotic Painkillers |
In Brief |
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Treatment admission rates involving abuse of narcotic painkillers1 increased in publicly funded substance abuse treatment facilities across the nation between 1992 and 2000. In 1992, the treatment admission rate for narcotic painkiller abuse in the United States was 13 admissions per 100,000 persons aged 12 or older. By 1997, the admission rate had increased by 15 percent, to 15 per 100,000, and by 2000, it had increased by another 74 percent, to 27 per 100,000. This report examines narcotic painkiller treatment admission rates per 100,000 persons aged 12 or older at five urbanization levels for 1992, 1997, and 2000. Data are from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), an annual compilation of data on the 1.6 million annual admissions to publicly-funded substance abuse treatment. U.S. counties and county equivalents were assigned to one of five urbanization levels according to the classification scheme developed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS):2
Treatment Admission Rates for Narcotic Painkillers Treatment admission rates for narcotic painkillers increased between 1992 and 2000 in the United States as a whole and at most levels of urbanization (Figure 1). Large central metropolitan areas had the highest rate of narcotic painkiller admissions in 1992, but they exhibited little change over the period 1992-2000 (Figure 2). By 2000, treatment admission rates for narcotic painkillers were lowest in large central metropolitan areas. The largest increase, 135 percent, occurred in non-metropolitan areas without cities.
Route of Administration The route of administration among narcotic painkiller abusers entering treatment changed between 1992 and 2000. In 1992, 66 percent of admissions for narcotic painkiller abuse took the drugs orally, and 25 percent injected them (Table 2). By 2000, however, the proportion taking the drugs orally had increased to 80 percent, and the proportion injecting had fallen to 12 percent. The route of administration changed most in metropolitan areas (central, fringe, and small), where the proportion of narcotic painkiller treatment admissions taking the drugs orally increased by between 13 and 18 percentage points, and the proportion injecting decreased similarly. Non-metropolitan areas with cities exhibited a similar pattern, but with changes of only about 5 percentage points. In the most rural areas (non-metropolitan areas without cities), the proportions of narcotic painkiller treatment admissions who took the drugs orally or injected them decreased slightly, by 2 to 3 percentage points. In these areas only, an increase was seen in the proportion who inhaled the drugs, from 3 percent in 1992 to 9 percent in 2000.
End Notes 1 Narcotic painkiller admissions include all admissions reporting primary, secondary, or tertiary abuse of narcotic painkillers such as oxycodone, codeine, Dilaudid, morphine, Demerol, and any other drug with morphine-like effects. Admissions involving abuse of heroin and/or methadone are excluded from this report. 2 Eberhardt, M.S., Ingram, D.D., Makuc, D.M., et al. (2001). Urban and Rural Health Chartbook. Health, United States, 2001. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
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