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Preliminary data indicate slight drop in US drug overdose deaths
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Drug overdose deaths in the United States declined by about 5% between December 2017 and December 2018, according to preliminary CDC data.
In 2018, the number of predicted drug overdose deaths was 68,557, indicating a 5.1% drop from the predicted count in December 2017, according to the 12 month-ending count data. However, these numbers may be underreported due to incomplete data.
These numbers indicate the first drop in drug overdose deaths in decades; however, these provisional counts may be slightly different from the final drug overdose death data, which will be available in a few months through the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The most recent final data from the National Vital Statistics System revealed that there were 70,237 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2017. According to the data, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths was 9.6% higher in 2017 than the rate in 2016 (21.7 vs. 19.8 per 100,000) and the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and tramadol increased by 45%. – by Savannah Demko
References:
CDC. Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999-2017. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db329.htm. Accessed July 17, 2019.
CDC. National Center for Health Statistics. Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm#ref8. Accessed July 17, 2019.