Rx overdose deaths: Another "Now It's a Problem Because it Affects Women" story

Submitted by charlie on Wed, 2013-07-03 11:34

Article here. Drug overdose deaths are increasing at a faster rate for women than men. But men continue to die in larger numbers. Apparently, now is the time to take action because it's now a "women's issue." Excerpt:

'Prescription painkiller addiction has long been seen as mainly a man’s problem, but a new analysis of federal data released Tuesday shows that in recent years the death rate has risen far faster among women.

Fatal overdoses from prescription pain pills increased fivefold among women from 1999 to 2010, the most recent year for which the federal government has final data. The rate among men tripled over the same period, according to the analysis, which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More women die from drug overdoses than from cervical cancer or car accidents. Four times as many died over the last 10 years from drug overdoses than from homicides. And while the absolute number of overdose deaths is still higher for men, women are catching up.'

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You beat me to it! The NYT just ran a piece on it, too. This is the first I've heard of the problem of men dying due to rx overdoses. Narry a peep these many decades. Now, there's an increase in the number of women's deaths from it and it's national news.

The NYT piece cites claims that a rise in "single parent households" and the attendant stress on "the parents" is a contributing factor. Yeah, by and large, whose fault was that? And it also acknowledges that heretofore the primary overdosers were men working in Appalachia (miners-- suffering from pain due to working in mines so the rest of us can have air conditioning) and "inner city blacks". Read: black men. And no one seemed to care.

White women now getting more of the Oxy-bug and it's a national emergency. Only now.

I agree, it's tragic. American society sure doesn't need *more* addicted people. But it also needs to pay more attention to the whole other half of its population's problems.

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2013-07-03 13:52

It's exactly the same with diseases such as lung cancer. For decades men were the large majority of victims, because smoking was a largely male activity. Now we are seeing as many women as men smoking, and we are seeing lung cancer rates for females rising faster than for males, some people in the UK are saying lung cancer needs to be given more attention.

I can only wonder that this is solely because women's chance of getting lung cancer is starting to catch up with men's.

Similar concerns have been expressed about alcohol abuse (traditionally a "male" problem), and even gout, and again the same pattern - problems that were more likely to affect men are starting to affect more women. A similar parallel can be drawn with the increasing debate over the fairness of lifetime alimony and child support payments in the US. Traditionally it was men who got hit by these payments, but now increasing numbers of women are being hit too it is time to take these issues seriously...

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Submitted by sirprince on Wed, 2013-07-03 17:03