Study: Painkiller abuse hitting close to home

WASHINGTON — Nearly 4 in 10 people know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers, including 25 percent who say it was a close friend or family member and 2 percent who acknowledge their own addiction, according to a new poll.

The Kaiser Family Foundation survey released Tuesday reveals that 16 percent say they know someone who has died from an overdose of prescription painkillers, including 9 percent who say that person was a family member or friend.

“A surprising 56 percent of the public say they have some personal connection to the issue — either because they say they know someone who has taken a prescription that wasn’t prescribed to them, know someone who has been addicted or know someone who has died from a prescription painkiller overdose,” according to the poll of 1,352 people conducted Nov. 10-17.

Thirty-nine percent said they knew someone who has been addicted to the prescription medications, which include oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine.

The United States continues to suffer from an epidemic of opioid addiction, with 16,235 overdose deaths from prescription medications in 2013 and another 8,260 from heroin.

The Kaiser poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, shows that connection to prescription painkiller abuse is more common among whites (63 percent), the affluent (63 percent with incomes of $90,000 or more), the young and the middle-aged (62 percent for people ages 18-29 and 61 percent for people 30-49).