In a newly released report, the federal public health agency said that “more persons died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2014 than during any previous year on record”. Because fentanyl is combined with heroin or straight-up sold as fentanyl, the CDC theorizes that “illicit fentanyl-associated deaths might represent an emerging and troubling feature of the rise in illicit opioid overdoses that has been driven by heroin”.
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“The increasing number of deaths from opioid overdose is alarming”, Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a press release.
Ballantyne added that the medical community should continue to recognize that opioids aren’t the solution for chronic pain, and “recognize that those already dependent on opioids need help, which probably includes opioid maintenance”.
Drug overdose deaths increased sharply across the United States to the highest level since at least 1970, according to a new government report.
Yet, the epidemic persists-particularly in the states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky and New Mexico, which had the highest rates of overdose deaths in the USA past year.
Forty-seven thousand people died from overdoses in 2014, mainly as a result of heroin and other opioids.
Cheap heroin has become more widely available: Heroin costs about one-fifth as much as most prescription opioids.
During the last 15 years the rate of abuse among prescription opioids has also raised, just as it was the case with illicit opioids like heroin. It also suggested they only prescribe the smallest supply of the drugs possible, usually three days or less for acute pain, the AP points out. However, the greatest increase was among synthetic opioids, which caused the death of 5,500 persons only in 2014.
“The sharp increase in deaths involving synthetic opioids, other than methadone, in 2014 coincided with law enforcement reports of increased availability of illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a synthetic opioid; however, illicitly manufactured fentanyl can not be distinguished from prescription fentanyl in death certificate data”, the report reads.
“Efforts to improve safer prescribing of prescription opioids must be intensified”, the CDC report stated.
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Visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. In addition, some have also proposed expanded availability and wider access to naloxone-an antidote for opioid-related overdoses.
