Sleeping Pills, Insomnia, and Medical Practice Report of a Study (1979) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Chapter 3: Public Health Problems Associated with the Use of Hypnotic Drugs
Chapter 3: Public Health Problems Associated with the Use of Hypnotic Drugs
Pages 63-80
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 63... ...
In one study, two-thirds of suicides had been preceded by medical visits in the previous 4 to 6 weeks; 7/ however, the direct source of the drugs used in most suicides, or implicated in accidental overdose deaths, is not readily available information. Because the focus of this study is the use of prescription drugs, the following discussion does not include adverse effects of alcohol alone.
|
From page 64... ...
l - ~ in A)
|
From page 65... ...
This increase in suicide rates among the younger age groups, together with evidence of increasingly widespread use of drugs for intoxication 6/ and the growing use of drugs as a means of suicide, led to much \of the demand during the 1960s for controls on prescription drugs, particularly barbiturates. In 1954, barbiturates were reported as the cause of death in four percent of the 16,000 suicides in the United States and in 84 percent of the 865 drug-related suicides.
|
From page 66... ...
1. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 YEAR Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Mortality Branch National Prescription Audit, IMS America, Ltd.
|
From page 67... ...
cn cn aJ · V)
|
From page 68... ...
Over half the reported drug overdose deaths involved the use of more than two substances, although an examination of the deaths in which multiple drugs were used shows the pervasiveness of alcohol. 11/ In Los Angeles county, where there are about 1,200 drug deaths a year, barbiturates are most commonly the drugs involved.
|
From page 69... ...
13/ At the other end of the age scale, the 15 to 24 year group receives only about nine percent of prescription drugs and seven percent of sedative-hypnotics, yet they account for 15 percent of drug suicides. 14/ Suicide Attempts In addition to 7,500 to 8,000 deaths a year from intentional drug overdose, it has been estimated that there are eight to 16 times as many failed attempts at suicide with drugs.
|
From page 70... ...
Department of Health, Education and Welfare, National Center for Health Statistics, Mortality Branch -70 16 16 281 189 610 656 468 578 250 281 164 185 156 154 141 125 100 118 101 98 96 89 69 68 63 51 51 57 84 99 2742 2839
|
From page 71... ...
Department of Health, Education and Welfare, National Center for Health Statistics, Mortality Branch.
|
From page 72... ...
22/ Norwegian researchers compared findings from blood samples obtained from 74 non-fatal traffic accident victims to those from a control group of 204 people not involved in accidents. Forty-six percent of the accident victims had blood alcohol concentrations in the intoxicated range; 11 percent showed diazepam in the blood sample, about half of these at the high end of the therapeutic range; a further 8 percent showed both alcohol and diazepam present.
|
From page 73... ...
25/ Third, until recently, there has been a tendency in most studies to screen blood and urine samples for the relatively easily detected drugs such as alcohol, opiates, and the barbiturates, while toxicological testing for the most widely prescribed drugs, diazepam and flurazepam, has been rare. More information should be forthcoming now that relatively simple tests have been devised for assaying serum levels of N-desalkylflurazepam (flurazepam's long-acting metabolite)
|
From page 74... ...
Snot asked. Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Survey on Drug Abuse: 1977, Volume 1, Main Findings.
|
From page 75... ...
They may be admitted on a voluntary basis or referred from such agencies as the Bureau of Prisons or the Veterans Administration. Another survey indicates that units that do not receive federal funds treat about the same number of clients, which suggests that there are about 20,000 people with a recognized problem with barbiturates in the United States.
|
From page 76... ...
HEW, National Center for Health Statistics, Suicides in the United States 1950-1964, Vital and Health Statistics, Series 20, Number 5, (Rockville: DREW Pub.
|
From page 77... ...
, 1975. National Center for Health Statistics, Cost and Acquisition of Prescribed and Non-prescribed Medicines, United States July 1964June 1965: Series 10, No.
|
From page 78... ...
78-547. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Statistical Series, Executive Report April 1977, Data from the National Drug Abuse Treatment Utilization Survey (NDATUS)
|
From page 79... ...
Psychopharmacologia 2:63-68, 1961. National Institute on Drug Abuse Statistical Series, Quarterly Report, Provisional Data January-March 1978, Series D, Number 6, DREW Publication (ADM)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.