Preliminary data indicate slight drop in US drug overdose deaths

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.

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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.