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FRIDAY, Feb. 22, 2019 (HealthDay News) – Overdose deaths from opioids in the United States have quadrupled in the last two decades, and the highest rates are now seen in eight eastern states, according to a new report. study.
These states are: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire and Ohio.
The researchers also found that the opioid mortality rate had increased fastest in the District of Columbia, having more than tripled each year since 2013, and that opioid mortality rates in Florida and Pennsylvania doubled every two years. .
"Although opioid-related mortality has been stereotyped as a concentrated low-income rural phenomenon in the Appalachian and Midwestern states, it has spread rapidly, particularly in the eastern states." , wrote the researchers.
Analysis of data from the US Census and the National Center for Health Statistics suggests that the epidemic of opioid overdose has evolved into three waves.
The first wave, from the 1990s to around 2010, was associated with prescription opioid analgesics (such as OxyContin). The second wave, from 2010 to recently, was associated with a sharp increase in the number of deaths related to heroin. The third and current wave, which began around 2013, involves a rapid increase in the number of deaths associated with synthetic opioids, such as tramadol (Ultram) and fentanyl.
It is likely that synthetic opioids have also contaminated the process of producing illicit drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamines, and are no longer limited to heroin, said the author of the drug. study, Mathew Kiang, postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University.
"People do not realize that their medications are harder and stronger than expected, which puts them at increased risk of overdose," Kiang said in a university press release.
The researchers also found that opioid overdose deaths were occurring in more people and that the number of opioid overdose deaths had increased dramatically among black Americans.
The 26% increase in the number of black opioid overdose deaths between 2016 and 2017 is the largest increase among all racial groups, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new study was published online on February 22 in JAMA Network open now.
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