Employee Screening Services is learning more everyday about prescription drug abuse in the workforce. To put this into perspective, the following information addresses prescription drug abuse as reported by numerous hospital emergency rooms.

Emergency room visits for non-medical uses of opioid prescription drugs doubled from 2006-2009, and for the first time the number of ER visits for prescription drugs equaled the number of visits for illegal and over-the-counter drugs.

The new data, reported in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, was compiled by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The researchers found that the estimated number of ER visits for non-medical uses of prescription narcotics increased from 144,644 in 2006 to 305,885 in 2009, a 111 percent increase.

The most widely abused drugs were Oxycodone, which rose 152 percent, Hydrocodone, which rose 123 percent, and Methadone, which rose 73 percent.

For more information on prescription drug abuse please visit www.nida.nih.gov/drugpages/prescriptions.html