http://goo.gl/U2Dl20
From 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million Americans died from drug overdoses. Opioid overdose deaths, including both opioid pain relievers and heroin, hit record levels in 2014, with an alarming 14 percent increase in just one year, according to new data published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Drug overdose deaths are up in both men and women, in non-Hispanic whites and blacks, and in adults of nearly all ages. Rates of drug overdose deaths were highest among five states: West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and Ohio. A map of drug overdose deaths by state (2013 and 2014) is available athttp://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html.
In addition, heroin-related death rates increased 26 percent from 2013-2014, totaling 10,574 deaths in 2014. Past misuse of prescription opioids is the strongest risk factor for heroin initiation and use - especially among people who became dependent upon or abused prescription opioids in the past year. The increased availability of heroin, its relatively low price (compared to prescription opioids), and high purity appear to be major drivers of the upward trend in heroin use, overdoses, and deaths.
The new findings point to four ways to prevent overdose deaths:
- Limit initiation into opioid misuse and addiction. Opioid pain reliever prescribing has quadrupled since 1999. Providing health care professionals with additional tools and information - including safer guidelines for prescribing these drugs - can help them make more informed prescribing decisions.
- Expand access to evidence-based substance use disorder treatment - including Medication-Assisted Treatment - for people who suffer from opioid use disorder.
- Protect people with opioid use disorder by expanding access and use of naloxone - a critical drug that can reverse the symptoms of an opioid overdose and save lives.
- State and local public health agencies, medical examiners and coroners, and law enforcement agencies must work together to improve detection of and response to illicit opioid overdose outbreaks to address this emerging threat to public health and safety.