Drug Overdose Deaths Jumped 30% Last Year in U.S.

By Ernie Mundell and Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporters

WEDNESDAY, July fourteen, 2021

As The us went into lockdown and treatment centers shut their doors, drug overdose deaths in the United States jumped by just about a third last yr, new info present.

The believed 93,331 drug overdose deaths recorded all through 2020 are a sharp increase — a 29.four% rise — about the seventy two,151 deaths believed in 2019, according to preliminary info from the Nationwide Heart for Wellbeing Stats (NCHS). The NCHS is part of the U.S. Centers for Ailment Manage and Avoidance.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse, referred to as the new quantities “chilling.”

“”This is the best range of overdose deaths at any time recorded in a 12-thirty day period time period, and the major increase since at least 1999,” she claimed. “The COVID-19 pandemic established a devastating collision of health and fitness crises in The us.”

The new NCHS info also present that overdose deaths from opioids, specifically, spiked from fifty,963 in 2019 to sixty nine,710 in 2020, about a 27% rise.

Overdose deaths from artificial opioids (mostly fentanyl) and psychostimulants this kind of as methamphetamine also rose from 2019 to 2020, the report uncovered. There were being also increases in deaths from semi-artificial opioids this kind of as prescription suffering prescription drugs and from cocaine.

Volkow, who wasn’t included in the new report, claimed the sharp and tragic rise in overdoses stems from a mixture of elements.

“This has been an exceptionally unsure and nerve-racking time for a lot of people and we are seeing an increase in drug consumption, trouble in accessing lifesaving solutions for material use diseases, and a tragic rise in overdose deaths,” she claimed.

Dr. Teresa Murray Amato has found cases of overdose firsthand in her job as chair of emergency medication at Lengthy Island Jewish Forest Hills, in New York Town.

“Individually I have see a lot of clients complaining about insomnia, elevated stress and anxiety and struggles with drug misuse as a usually means of self-medicating,” she claimed. “If you or a beloved a single are worried about drug misuse, you should access out to your physician and make a risk-free approach.”

Amato thinks elements other than COVID might have been at perform. “Around the earlier yr we have also found elevated social unrest, leading to general elevated stress and anxiety as people are uncovered to violent illustrations or photos in the information additional usually,” she claimed.

Another skilled claimed COVID fears retained a lot of from looking for aid.

Some people “prevented looking for care for psychological health and fitness or material use complications – in spite of the reality that healthcare vendors, together with our individual healthcare facility, began to consider, confess and handle clients remotely wherever probable, in order to clear away barriers to obtain,” claimed Dr. Timothy Sullivan, chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Staten Island University Hospital in New York Town.

“Most opioid treatment plans, this kind of as methadone plans, radically improved their insurance policies pertaining to provision of consider-house bottles, for instance, in order to aid obtain,” he additional.

All the professionals agreed that obtain to well timed health and fitness care is critical.

“As we go on to address both the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid disaster, we will have to prioritize producing treatment selections additional widely available to people with material use diseases,” Volkow claimed.

The new NCHS info integrated documented and predicted drug overdose deaths nationally and in each jurisdiction, as effectively as documented and predicted drug overdose deaths involving certain medications or drug lessons.

Far more information and facts

The U.S. Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse has additional about drug overdose deaths.

Resources: Nora Volkow, MD, director, Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse, U.S. Centers for Ailment Manage and Avoidance Timothy Sullivan, MD, chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Staten Island University Hospital, New York Town Teresa Murray Amato, MD, chair, emergency medication, Lengthy Island Jewish Forest Hills, New York Town information release, July fourteen, 2021

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