Relative mortality of prescription painkillers and OTC painkillers [ Mon Feb 20 2012 10:45 AM ]
“There aren’t other medications that cause anything like these rates of death."
NSAIDS 16,500 in arthritis patients alone per year (New England Journal of Medicine, June 1999)
NSAIDS "The Arthritis, Rheumatism, and Aging Medical Information System (ARAMIS) system has estimated that more than 100,000 hospitalizations and more than 16,000 deaths in the United States each year are due to NSAID-related complications with costs greater than $2 billion. (Medscape, May 2010)
Prescription painkillers: 14,800 in 2008 (CDC "Current Features")