Prescription Drug Abuse Statistics

According to an article in Claims Journal - Winter 2012, quoting from a report issued by the National Institutes of Health ("NIH"), "of the 2.1 billion prescriptions the American Medical Association estimates are written annually, nearly 25 percent of those were used by approximately 52 million Americans for something other than a medical reason."  Perhaps this is one of the reasons that recent reports have stated that the number of deaths arising out of use/misuse of prescription medications has surpassed deaths relating to illegal drug use.