Figure 2. Opioid-related news media reports and poisoning mortality, 1999–2005, United States.

Monthly print news media volume mentioning short-acting prescription opioid substances closely tracked closely with poisoning mortality due to those medications. Print news media articles consistently preceded mortality by a few months. Month and year of publication and headlines were extracted for any article whose body text contained the generic or branded name of short-acting opioid substances available for outpatient use in the United States during the study period: buprenorphine, codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, propoxyphene, oxycodone, and tramadol. Morphine was excluded because a preliminary review indicated articles mentioning morphine almost exclusively described pain management (without abuse) or arts reviews. Poisoning deaths were identified using a combination of International Classification of Disease 10^th Edition (ICD-10) codes, see text, to identify deaths involving short-acting opioid substances. Data on methadone are not presented due to difficulties in distinguishing deaths from its two indications (addiction, pain) using ICD-10 codes, however inclusion of methadone did not significantly alter results (data not shown). Time series were smoothed using 5-month moving averages.