Prescription drug overdoses, a dangerous side effect of the nation's embrace of narcotic painkillers, are a "substantial" burden on hospitals and the economy, according to a new study of emergency room visits. Overdoses involving prescription painkillers have become a leading cause of injury deaths in the U.S. and a closely watched barometer of an evolving health care crisis. Little was known, however, about the nature of overdoses treated in the nation's emergency rooms. A new analysis of 2010 data from U.S. hospitals found that prescription painkillers, known as opioids, were involved in 68 percent of overdoses treated in emergency rooms. Hospital care for those overdose victims cost an estimated $1.4 billion.
