US musician Tom Petty died of 'accidental drug overdose', family says

Tom Petty died of an accidental drug overdose after taking various medications, his family said in a statement.

His wife and daughter released the results of Mr Petty's autopsy on his Facebook page, moments before coroner's officials in Los Angeles released their findings and the rocker's full autopsy report.

Dana and Adria Petty said they had received the results from the coroner's office and that the overdose was due to a variety of medications.

The coroner's findings showed Mr Petty had a mix of prescription painkillers, sedatives and an antidepressant in his system when he died last year.

Among the medications found in his system were fentanyl and oxycodone. An accidental overdose of fentanyl was also determined to have killed Prince in April 2016.

Mr Petty suffered from emphysema, a fractured hip and knee problems that caused him pain, the family said, but he was still committed to touring.

He had just wrapped up a tour a few days before he died in October at age 66.

"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," his family's statement said, adding that he performed more than 50 concerts with a fractured hip.

The family said Petty had been prescribed various pain medications for his multitude of issues, including fentanyl patches, and "we feel confident that this was, as the coroner found, an unfortunate accident."

They added: "As a family we recognise this report may spark a further discussion on the opioid crisis and we feel that it is a healthy and necessary discussion and we hope in some way this report can save lives."

Painkillers and sedatives are among the most commonly prescribed medications in the US, but both drug types slow users' heart rate and breathing. The Food and Drug Administration has warned against mixing them because the combination can lead to breathing problems, coma and death.

Government figures released in December showed that for the first time, the powerful painkiller fentanyl and its close opioid cousins played a bigger role in the deaths than any other legal or illegal drug, surpassing prescription pain pills and heroin.