Abstract
Abstract Data from various sources suggest that the abuse of prescription opioids has risen dramatically in the United States since the mid-1990s. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), previously known as the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, is one such source that surveys the civilian, non-institutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years or older and is designed to determine national estimates of rates of use, numbers of users, and other measures related to illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco products. As depicted in Figure 4.1, this survey revealed that the initiation of the nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers has quadrupled, from an incidence of 573,000 in 1990 to an astounding 2.5 million in 2002 (SAMHSA, 2004a). Taken in the larger context of substance abuse, the estimated number of new initiates in 2004 to nonmedical use of pain relievers (2.4 million) exceeded even that of illicit drugs such as marijuana (2.1 million) and cocaine (1 million; SAMHSA, 2005a).
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