title: Prescription drug overdoses: a review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Overdoses involving prescription drugs in the United States have reached epidemic proportions over the past 20 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review categorizes and summarizes literature on the topic dating from the first published reports through 2011 using a traditional epidemiologic model of host, agent, and environment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Host factors include male sex, middle age, non-Hispanic white race, low income, and mental health problems. Agent risk factors include use of opioid analgesics and benzodiazepines, high prescribed dosage for opioid analgesics, multiple prescriptions, and multiple prescribers. Environmental factors include rural residence and high community prescribing rates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The epidemiology of prescription drug overdoses differs from the epidemiology of illicit drug overdoses. Incomplete understanding of prescription overdoses impedes prevention efforts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This epidemic demands additional attention from injury professionals.
authors.affiliation: Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC El Paso Quarantine Station, 601 Sunland Park Drive, Suite 200, El Paso, TX 79912, USA. lbp4@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Leonard J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Paulozzi
mesh_terms: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000506:poisoning* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000506:poisoning*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D055553:Prescription Drugs