Death by Medication-Alcohol Combo Up 3,000 Percent

July 28, 2008— -- Accidental deaths from mixing prescription medications with street drugs or alcohol have shot up by more than 3,000 percent in the last 20 years, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers at the University of California in San Diego analyzed all U.S. death certificates between 1983 and 2004. They found that while the estimated years of life lost to other accidental deaths by car crashes, drowning, falling, gun accidents or fires went down, general medical error deaths (200,000 in total) went up by 500 percent.

However, that increase was nothing compared to the jump from deadly drug and medication interactions.

"I've been studying mortality forever," said lead author David Phillips, a professor of sociology at UCSD. "The kind where the person takes the medication at home -- that was certainly a big surprise."

Phillips believes the deadly trend is rooted in two changes: First, the number of medications people take has increased in the last 20 years, automatically increasing the chance for an interaction. Second, the general trend in hospitals to send people home earlier from a procedure puts patients in charge of their medication, and therefore in charge of their own safety.

Ben S., a member of the support group Al-Anon for family members of alcoholics, said the findings of the study hit home for him.

"I just happened to have this sort of thing on my mind because this is what my week is like," he said.

Ben, who asked ABC News to refrain from using his full name, has a wife who is an alcoholic. He said she has been drinking a fifth of vodka each day for a toothache, and Ben was at a loss for what to tell her doctor when she went in for surgery.

"If you're already in denial about your alcoholism, then you don't think it's necessary to mention it to a doctor," he said. "An addiction is a blindness to your own health care, obviously. It's a self-destructive path."

Dr. Nicholas Pace, an addiction expert and a clinical professor of medicine at New York University in Manhattan, doesn't believe most people fully understand the danger of mixing alcohol and medication.