NEW ORLEANS — Drug overdose deaths within the U.S. went up barely final yr after two large leaps in the course of the pandemic.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the numbers plateaued for many of final yr. Experts aren’t certain whether or not meaning the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in U.S. historical past is lastly reaching a peak, or whether or not it’ll appear to be earlier plateaus that had been adopted by new surges in deaths.
“The fact that it does seem to be flattening out, at least at a national level, is encouraging,” stated Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University epidemiology professor whose analysis focuses on drug use. “But these numbers are still extraordinarily high. We shouldn’t suggest the crisis is in any way over.”
An estimated 109,680 overdose deaths occurred final yr, based on numbers posted Wednesday by the CDC. That’s about 2% greater than the 107,622 U.S. overdose deaths in 2021, however nothing just like the 30% improve seen in 2020, and 15% improve in 2021.
While the general nationwide quantity was comparatively static between 2021 and 2022, there have been dramatic modifications in a variety of states: 23 reported fewer overdose deaths, one – Iowa – noticed no change, and the remaining continued to extend.
Eight states – Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia – reported sizable overdose demise decreases of about 100 or extra in contrast with the earlier calendar yr.
Some of those states had a few of the highest overdose demise charges in the course of the epidemic, which Keyes stated could be an indication that years of concentrated work to handle the issue is paying off. State officers cited varied elements for the decline, like social media and well being training campaigns to warn the general public concerning the risks of drug use; expanded dependancy therapy – together with telehealth – and wider distribution of the overdose-reversing remedy naloxone.
Plus, the stigma that stored drug customers from searching for assist – and a few docs and law enforcement officials from serving to them – is waning, stated Dr. Joseph Kanter, the state well being officer for Louisiana, the place overdose deaths fell 4% final yr.
“We’re catching up and the tide’s turning – slowly,” stated Kanter, whose state has one of many nation’s highest overdose demise charges.
Beginning within the mid-Nineties, abuse of prescription opioid painkillers was accountable for deaths earlier than a gradual flip to heroin, which in 2015 brought on extra deaths than prescription painkillers or different medication. A yr later, the extra deadly fentanyl and its shut cousins turned the most important drug killer.
Last yr, most overdose deaths continued to be linked to fentanyl and different artificial opioids. About 75,000, up 4% from the yr earlier than. There additionally was a 11% improve in deaths involving cocaine and a 3% improve in deaths involving meth and different stimulants.
Overdose deaths are sometimes attributed to multiple drug; some folks take a number of medication and officers say cheap fentanyl is more and more reduce into different medication, typically with out the patrons’ information.
Research from Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a drug coverage knowledgeable on the University of California, San Francisco, suggests “there appears to be some substitution going on,” with a variety of individuals who use illicit medication turning to methamphetamines or different choices to attempt to avoid fentanyl and fentanyl-tainted medication.
Ciccarone stated he believes overdose deaths lastly will development down. He cited enhancements in improvements in counseling and dependancy therapy, higher availability of naloxone and authorized actions that led to greater than $50 billion in proposed and finalized settlements – cash that ought to be accessible to bolster overdose prevention.
“We’ve thrown a lot at this 20-year opioid overdose problem,” he stated. ”We ought to be bending the curve downward.”
But he additionally voiced some warning, saying “we have been here before.”
Consider 2018, when overdose deaths dropped 4% from the earlier yr, to about 67,000. After these numbers got here out, then-President Donald Trump declared “we are curbing the opioid epidemic.”
But overdose deaths then rose to a document 71,000 in 2019, then soared in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to 92,000 in 2020 and 107,000 in 2021.
Lockdowns and different pandemic-era restrictions remoted folks with drug addictions and made therapy tougher to get, consultants stated.
Keyes believes that 2022’s numbers didn’t get any worse partly as a result of isolation eased because the pandemic ebbed. But there could also be points forward, others say, like elevated detection of veterinary tranquilizer xylazine within the illicit drug provide and proposals to cut back issues like prescribing dependancy drugs by means of telehealth.
“What the past 20 years of this overdose crisis has taught us is that this really is a moving target,” Keyes stated. “And when you think you’ve got a handle on it, sometimes the problem can shift in new and different ways.”
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