Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Double in a Year

Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Double in a 12 months

Dec. 20, 2016 -- The entrance line within the epidemic of drug overdoses within the U.S. has shifted from the prescription pad to the road, a brand new research reveals.

The research, launched Tuesday, reveals that heroin is the main reason for overdose deaths within the U.S. In 2010, the primary perpetrator was the prescription ache medicine oxycodone. The research additionally reveals the startling rise in deaths from fentanyl overdoses. In a single yr, from 2013 to 2014, the quantity of people that died by overdosing on the drug fentanyl greater than doubled.

Fentanyl is a lab-created opioid prescribed by medical doctors to deal with extreme ache. However consultants say fentanyl prescriptions aren't the most important downside.

"Fentanyl is a very dramatic improve in overdose deaths, regardless that the prescribing of fentanyl has not elevated," says Adam Bisaga, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia College Medical Middle in New York Metropolis. "So almost definitely, fentanyl is coming from outdoors the official market. We're speaking about illicit fentanyl that's being dropped at this nation."

Prior to now few years, the U.S. has seen a flood of unlawful Chinese language provides of the potent and fast-acting drug

The research used a brand new technique to go looking the notes on hundreds of loss of life certificates to search for the names of particular medicine and phrases like "drug" and "overdose."

The outcomes present a change. In 2010, oxycodone was chargeable for about 5,000 deaths. By comparability, heroin killed about three,000 folks that yr.

By 2014, heroin had turn out to be the deadliest drug, killing greater than 10,000 folks, whereas deaths from oxycodone remained regular.

The shift in all probability displays a sample of dependancy that's turn out to be extra widespread in recent times: Sufferers typically first turn out to be hooked on prescription painkillers, however when these turn out to be too costly or too troublesome to get, they flip to road medicine to get excessive. Medicine like heroin and fentanyl have turn out to be cheaper and simpler to get in recent times. Some medicine bought on the road are so potent now that cops have been warned to not deal with them as a result of they are often lethal even when touched.