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Deaths due to drug overdose have increased for the 11^th consecutive year in the U.S., according to federal data released on Tuesday.

The data analysis was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics which reported that in the year 2010; more than 38,000 people had died due to overdoses of drugs of which some 57 percent were due to prescription painkillers, reports Los Angeles Times. A majority of the deaths, about 74 percent of them, were due to accidental overdose of the drug and just 17 percent were related to suicide.

"The big picture is that this is a big problem that has gotten much worse quickly," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was involved in the current research, reports the Associated Press.

The latest statistics show that the deaths from prescription painkiller overdose have increased by 6 percent since 2009. Drugs like Oxycontin and morphine were related to more than 16,000, an increase of 7 percent, of the total fatalities due to drug overdose occurred in 2010, reports the New York Times.

According to the data from National Institute on Drug Abuse, deaths due to prescription drug overdoses have quadrupled since 1999 and are now more than deaths caused by heroin and cocaine combined. Currently, about 7 million people use prescription drug for non-medical purposes in the U.S. Prescription drugs are generally considered safe as they are prescribed by doctors. However, these drugs affect brain systems directly or indirectly much like illicit drugs and these can lead to addiction and overdoses.

The research letter is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.