The opioid crisis continues to shock with its scale, as a recent study published on JAMA Network Open shows a fifth of deaths of people in their mid-twenties to thirties were caused by opioid overdoses, according to an article in Gizmodo. While concerning enough by itself, the additional information that this represents a 500 per cent increase since 2001 shows how quickly the abuse of opioids has grown.
Based on the research, performed using mortality data from the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, the authors of the study also noted that deaths caused by opioids had spiked by 296 per cent over the same period and, by the end of 2016, one of every 65 deaths in the US could be traced to opioids.
Said lead author Tara Gomes, “In the absence of a multidisciplinary approach to this issue that combines access to treatment, harm reduction, and education, this crisis will impact the U.S. for generations.”
Sources:
https://gizmodo.com/opioids-caused-1-in-5-deaths-of-young-people-in-the-us-1826481496
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2682878
