Beloved singer/songwriter Tom Petty died of an accidental overdose of prescription medications, including opioids, according to a recently completed autopsy. He joins other famous entertainers Michael Jackson, Prince, Heath Ledger, Philip Seymour Hoffman and hundreds of thousands of lesser known individuals in losing their lives as a result of their use of prescription medications for pain and other associated ailments. 

The coroner found traces in Petty's body of the drugs fentanyl (an opioid),  oxycodone (another opioid), temazepam (a benzodiazepine, brand name Restoril used for anxiety), alprazolam (another benzodiazepine, brand name Xanax), citalopram (an SSRI antidepressant, brand name Celexa). His family released a statement that Petty suffered from “many serious ailments including emphysema, knee problems and most significantly a fractured hip,” but that he continued to tour, worsening his conditions. “On the day he died he was informed his hip had graduated to a full on break and it is our feeling that the pain was simply unbearable and was the cause for his over use of medication.

” It is well known that prescribing opioids along with anti-anxiety drugs increases the dangers of overdose because both classes of drugs suppress respiration. Yet even those who presumably have access to the best medical care because of more than adequate financial resources are exposed to the dangers of overprescribing. 

As long as doctors continue to regard pharmaceuticals as the only legitimate treatment for chronic pain while ignoring dozens of safer and more effective treatments, these senseless deaths will continue to happen.