Drug overdose deaths in the US decreased in 2023, for the first time in five years

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CNN
 — 

After a steep rise in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, preliminary knowledge exhibits that drug overdose deaths in the USA ticked down in 2023 for the primary time in 5 years.

About 107,500 folks died from a drug overdose in 2023, in accordance with data from the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Nationwide Middle for Well being Statistics — about 3,500 fewer than in 2022.

Final yr’s lower is the primary since 2018, however the 3% drop is much much less substantial than the surges that pushed overdose deaths to file ranges lately. Overdose deaths spiked 30% between 2019 and 2020 and rose one other 15% between 2020 and 2021, CDC knowledge exhibits.

Preliminary knowledge is topic to vary as demise certificates are reviewed and information are assessed, however estimates recommend that, regardless of the decline, overdose deaths in 2023 had been nonetheless virtually twice as excessive as they had been 5 years in the past, in accordance with the CDC knowledge.

“It’s a hopeful pattern in some methods,” mentioned Dr. Katherine Keyes, a professor on the Columbia College Mailman Faculty of Public Well being whose analysis focuses on substance use epidemiology. “We all know that this drug epidemic is dynamic and modifications fairly rapidly, so any time you see a leveling off or a slight lower, it’s promising. It’s actually not an indication that we have to take the foot off the fuel of overdose prevention.”

The US Division of Well being and Human Companies launched a coordinated nationwide strategy to stop overdoses two years in the past.

“This progress over the past 12 months ought to make us need to reinvigorate our efforts realizing that our methods are making a distinction,” CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deb Houry mentioned in an announcement, however “there are nonetheless households and buddies shedding their family members to drug overdoses at staggering numbers.”

“Our ideas stay with those that have misplaced family members and those that are combating habit or know somebody who’s. Our nation is dedicated to ending this epidemic and stopping pointless demise and struggling,” she mentioned.

Fentanyl has been driving the newest wave of overdose deaths, with artificial opioids concerned in additional than two-thirds of overdose deaths. These extremely potent narcotics proceed to play an outsized position: they had been concerned in almost 70% of overdose deaths in 2023. Nonetheless, there have been about 1,500 fewer overdose deaths involving fentanyl and different artificial opioids in 2023 than in 2022, the brand new knowledge exhibits.

Nonetheless, the lethal menace of fentanyl — which is about 50 occasions stronger than heroin — stays. In a single indicator of its pervasiveness, a study printed Monday exhibits that legislation enforcement seizures of illicit fentanyl have surged lately.

Greater than 115 million drugs containing illicit fentanyl had been seized by legislation enforcement in 2023, in contrast with about 71 million in 2022 and fewer than 50,000 in 2017.

“Fentanyl has continued to infiltrate the drug provide in communities throughout the USA and it’s a very harmful time to make use of medication, even simply sometimes,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse, mentioned in an announcement. She was indirectly concerned within the new research, however the analysis was funded by the federal company. “Illicit drugs are made to look equivalent to actual prescription drugs, however can truly comprise fentanyl. It’s urgently essential that folks know that any drugs given to somebody by a buddy, bought on social media, or acquired from any supply aside from a pharmacy might be doubtlessly lethal — even after a single ingestion.”

The variety of deaths as a consequence of fentanyl stays “alarmingly excessive,” Keyes mentioned. However the extra promising traits mirror important, multi-pronged efforts from many alternative sectors, she mentioned, together with use of therapies for opioid use dysfunction, expanded entry to naloxone and different hurt discount applications and decreasing opioid prescribing.

“I feel that has been an actual success story for public well being,” she mentioned.

Whereas overdose deaths involving opioids declined, these involving cocaine and psychostimulants equivalent to methamphetamine elevated, in accordance with the preliminary knowledge from the CDC.

There have been greater than 36,000 deaths involving psychostimulants in 2023, a 2% enhance from the yr earlier than. And deaths involving cocaine rose 5%, to almost 30,000. A couple of third of all overdose deaths in 2023 concerned psychostimulants, and cocaine was concerned in additional than 1 / 4.

A lot of this enhance is probably going as a result of proliferation of fentanyl all through the drug provide, Keyes mentioned. “We all know that when stimulants combine with opioids, it’s significantly deadly,” she mentioned. However expanded surveillance may also help those that are working to handle the overdose disaster perceive its quickly altering epidemiology and adapt their efforts in real-time.

Huge disparities in overdose deaths stay, together with state-level variations; the newest CDC knowledge exhibits “notable” will increase in some Western states equivalent to Washington and Oregon, with overdose deaths rising at the least 27% year-over-year. In different states, together with Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana and Maine, overdose deaths dropped by at the least 15%.

“State-to-state variations level to the necessity for continued growth of those efforts,” Keyes mentioned. “However I feel the traits you see nationally are indicative of the way it can work. We are able to tackle the opioid epidemic. This isn’t inevitable.”

For a lot of state and native governments, funds from opioid settlements have been “instrumental” to overdose prevention efforts and elevated entry to therapy and restoration help, Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Affiliation of State and Territorial Well being mentioned in an announcement.

“Transferring ahead, jurisdictions will proceed to prioritize investments in hurt discount, prevention, and addressing the social determinants of well being throughout communities which were hardest hit by the overdose crisis,” he mentioned. “Additionally, state and territorial well being businesses will proceed to coordinate with companions to construct a complete response to this complicated public well being problem. Lastly, jurisdictions will proceed to observe and put together to answer modifications in overdose charges and rising threats throughout the drug provide.”

Latest surveys recommend that drug use amongst teenagers within the US has been comparatively low and trending down. However overdose deaths have been rising on this age group and millions of adults and adolescents have a drug use dysfunction.

“Analysis has proven that delaying the beginning of substance use amongst younger folks, even by one yr, can lower substance use for the remainder of their lives. We could also be seeing this play out in actual time,” Volkow mentioned. “This pattern is reassuring. Although, it stays essential to proceed to teach younger folks concerning the dangers and harms of substance use in an open and sincere method, emphasizing that illicit drugs and different substances might comprise lethal fentanyl.”

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