CDC: Opioid Overdose Deaths Fall

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/opioids/85523

Overdose deaths involving all opioids, prescription opioids, and heroin dropped in 2018 from the previous year, new CDC data showed.

Deaths that involved synthetic opioids, however, continued to climb and accounted for two-thirds of opioid-related deaths in 2018, reported Nana Wilson, PhD, of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in Atlanta, and co-authors.

“Decreases in overdose deaths involving prescription opioids and heroin reflect the effectiveness of public health efforts to protect Americans and their families,” CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, said in a statement.

“While we continue work to improve those outcomes, we are also addressing the increase in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids,” he added.

The findings come from an analysis of the latest available drug overdose death data and were published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The analysis showed that 67,367 drug overdose deaths occurred in 2018 — a 4.1% decline from 2017 — and 46,802 of these deaths involved an opioid.

From 2017 to 2018, overdose deaths involving prescription opioids fell 13.5%. Heroin overdose deaths fell 4.1%, and deaths involving all opioids fell 2%.

“Efforts to reduce high-dose opioid prescribing have increased and have contributed to decreases in prescription opioid-involved deaths,” Wilson and co-authors noted.

Deaths involving synthetic opioids (excluding methadone) increased 10% from 2017 to 2018. Synthetic opioids were involved in 31,335 deaths, or nearly half of all overdose deaths in 2018.

“Increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths are likely driven by proliferation of illicitly manufactured fentanyl or fentanyl analogs in the illicit drug supply,” the researchers wrote. DEA data show that fentanyl was the most identified synthetic opioid in drug seizures in the first half of 2017 and fentanyl reports in all regions increased from 2014 to 2018, they noted.

Synthetic opioid-involved death rates rose in the Northeast, South, and West and remained stable in the Midwest, the investigators added.

“Changing substance use patterns, including the resurgence of methamphetamine use, particularly among persons using opioids and the mixing of opioids with methamphetamine and cocaine in the illicit drug supply, have continued to make the drug overdose landscape more complicated and surveillance and prevention efforts more challenging,” Wilson and co-authors wrote.

The researchers identified drug overdose deaths using the National Vital Statistics System. The analysis showed that overall, overdose death rates increased among blacks, Hispanics, and people 65 and older in 2018.

The findings have several limitations, Wilson and co-authors said. Postmortem toxicology testing varied by jurisdiction, and testing improvements may have accounted for some reported increases. In addition, the percentage of 2017 and 2018 death certificates with at least one drug specified varied among states and over time.

by Judy George, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today March 19, 2020

This author wrote this report and jumped back and forth in both numbers and percentages

The analysis showed that 67,367 drug overdose deaths occurred in 2018 — a 4.1% decline from 2017 — and 46,802 of these deaths involved an opioid.

So there was 20,565 overdose deaths of NON OPIATE MEDS/DRUGS it is claimed that 15,000/yr people die from the use/abuse of NSAIDS.. from GI bleeds

Synthetic opioids were involved in 31,335 deaths… so 15,467 deaths from Heroin and pharmaceutical grade opiates. The has to be asked… how many of those 15,467 deaths were from ILLEGAL HEROIN ?

MORE PEOPLE DIED FROM NON-OPIATE MEDS/DRUGS than ILLEGAL HEROIN AND PHARMACEUTICAL GRADE OPIATES !

So abt 67 percent of all opiate involved deaths was from ILLEGAL FENTANYL DRUG  not the author’s conclusion … nearly half of all overdose deaths in 2018.

Then there is this little jewel  toxicology testing varied by jurisdiction, and testing improvements may have accounted for some reported increases.

 

 

 

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