August 21, 2007 - Associated Press (US) 5 Top Painkillers See Large Jump In Sales 90% Increase Seen 1997- 05, Including OxyContin, Vicodin By Frank Bass, Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- Retail sales of five leading painkillers nearly doubled over an eight-year period, reflecting a surge in use by patients nationwide who are living in pain, according to a new Associated Press analysis of federal drug prescription data.

The analysis reveals that oxycodone usage is migrating out of Appalachia to areas such as Columbus, Ohio, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and significant numbers of codeine users are living in many suburban neighborhoods around the country.

The amount of five major painkillers sold at retail establishments rose 90 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to Drug Enforcement Administration figures.

More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during 2005, the most recent year represented in the data.

That is enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every person in the country.

Oxycodone, the chemical used in OxyContin, is responsible for most of the increase. Oxycodone use jumped nearly six-fold between 1997 and 2005. The world of pain extends beyond big cities and involves more than oxycodone.

In Appalachia, retail sales of hydrocodone -- sold mostly as Vicodin -- are the highest in the U.S. Nine of the 10 areas with the highest per-capita sales are in mostly rural parts of West Virginia, Kentucky or Tennessee.

Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, director of the blood and cancer center at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, Conn., said Vicodin is a popular painkiller to give patients after surgery, and many doctors are familiar with it.

"Over the past 10 years, there has been much better education in the medical community to ... ask if people are having pain and to better diagnose and treat it," Gordon said.

Suburbs are not immune to the explosion. While retail sales of codeine have fallen by one-quarter since 1997, some of the highest rates of sales are around Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, Tenn., and Long Island, N.Y.

The DEA figures analyzed by the AP include nationwide sales and distribution of drugs by hospitals, retail pharmacies, doctors and teaching institutions.

An AP investigation found these reasons for the increase: The population is getting older. As age increases, so does the need for pain medications. In 2000, there were 35 million people older than 65. By 2020, the Census Bureau estimates the number of elderly in the U.S. will reach 54 million.

Drugmakers have embarked on unprecedented marketing campaigns. Spending on drug marketing has zoomed from $11 billion in 1997 to nearly $30 billion in 2005, congressional investigators found.

Profit margins among the leading companies routinely have been three and four times higher than in other Fortune 500 industries.

A major change in pain management philosophy is now in its third decade. Doctors who once said pain is part of the healing process began reversing course in the early 1980s; most now see pain management as an important ingredient in overcoming illness.

Retired Staff Sgt. James Fernandez, 54, of Fredericksburg, Va., survived two helicopter crashes and Gulf War Syndrome over 20 years in the Marine Corps. He remains disabled from his service-related injuries and takes the equivalent of nine painkillers containing oxycodone every day.

"It's made a difference," he said. "I still have bad days, but it's under control." Such stories should hearten longtime advocates of wider painkiller use, such as Russell Portenoy, head of New York's Beth Israel pain management department. But they have not.

"I'm concerned and many people are concerned, that the pendulum is swinging too far back," he said.

On The Web:

• Pain Relief Network, www.painreliefnetwork.org
• Drug Enforcement Administration, www.usdoj.gov/dea
• American Academy of Pain Management, www.aapainmanage.org

AP writers Dave Collins and Samira Jafari contributed.

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