Opioids play major role in rising drug overdose deaths in the US
Shutterstock/Steve Heap
Fatal drug overdoses among seniors in the United States have quadrupled in the last 20 years, showing that the problem isn’t just affecting young people.
Since 1999, there has been a steady increase in drug overdose deaths in the United States. This is largely due to the proliferation of prescription drugs and illicit opioids such as morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl.
“Overdose is a hot topic among young people,” says Chelsea Shover of the University of California, Los Angeles. “We wanted to understand the extent to which it’s happening among older people,” she said.
She and her colleagues collected data on overdose deaths in adults 65 years and older from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER database. The database tracks all recorded deaths within a country, including age, race, gender and cause of death for that country.
Researchers found that between 2002 and 2021, the rate of fatal overdoses among older adults quadrupled. In 2002, three of her 100,000 adults over the age of 65 in the United States died of drug overdoses. In 2021, that number has increased to 12 he per 100,000 people. Rates were highest among non-Hispanic blacks and Native Americans, but Asians and non-Hispanic whites had higher death rates from intentional overdose. 62 out of every 100,000 adults in the world die from drug overdoses.
Most fatal drug overdoses in older adults in 2021 involved illicit drugs, but 37% involved prescription drugs. Opioids, including prescription opioids, were responsible for 57% of overdose deaths.
“Compared to other parts of the population, older adults are generally prescribed more, including more medications that can lead to overdoses, either alone or in combination.” They also don’t metabolize the drug efficiently, increasing the risk of an overdose, says Alexis Cuervis of Hunter University in New York.he was not involved in this study
“Understanding the extent of this problem is critical to enacting better policies to provide more equitable health care for older people,” says Schauber. For example, Medicare—the federal health insurance program for older adults in the United States—doesn’t have to cover treatment for mental health and substance use disorders to the same degree as other health conditions, she says.
topic:
