Fentanyl-involved deaths increase 182% among adolescents, study finds

Deaths involving fentanyl in people aged 10 to 19 years increased by 182% from 2019 to 2021, among other findings reported in a study published in MMWR.

The study, authored by researchers in the division of overdose prevention at the CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention, found that among an estimated 108,000 overdose deaths in the adolescent age group between July 2019 and December 2021, 90% involved opioids and 83.9% illicitly manufactured fentanyl, whereas 25% involved counterfeit pills.

The authors said “urgent efforts to prevent overdose deaths among adolescents are needed.”

“Collaboration among public health and safety agencies, physicians, mental health and substance use treatment providers, and educators to implement these efforts could save lives,” they wrote.

Also published this week, the 2022 Monitoring the Future survey — conducted yearly by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) — summarized substance use behaviors self-reported by 31,438 students across the country. Among other findings, the survey recorded its lowest levels of heroin use among respondents, whereas use of narcotics other than heroin — such as prescription painkillers and similar substances — increased slightly.

Nora Volkow, MD, director of the NIDA, told Healio that the reported increase in overdoses due to fentanyl were primarily due to contamination and to teenagers purchasing supposed name-brand pills at street level.

“The ones that they most frequently favor, that are likely to be contaminated ... are prescription medications and illicitly manufactured prescription drugs,” Volkow said.

Volkow added in a statement that although the data indicated that drug use is not becoming more common among young people than in the past, “the tragic increase in overdose deaths among this population suggests that drug use is becoming more dangerous than ever before.”

“It is absolutely crucial to educate young people that pills purchased via social media, given to someone by a friend, or obtained from an unknown source may contain deadly fentanyl,” she said in the statement.

References:

Miech RA D, et al. Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2022: Secondary School Students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan. https://monitoringthefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/mtf2022.pdf.

Most reported substance use among adolescents held steady in 2022. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/most-reported-substance-use-among-adolescents-held-steady-2022. Published Dec. 15, 2022. Accessed Dec. 16, 2022.

Tanz LJ, et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022;doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7150a2.