By Alan Mozes
HealthDay reporter
FRIDAY, April 2, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Deaths from overdose from a dangerous combination of cocaine and opioids outnumber deaths from cocaine abuse alone, warns a new U.S. government report.
“Much of the increase in drug overdose deaths with cocaine in recent years has been due to co-occurrence with opioids,” said study author Dr. Holly Hedegaard.
A similar trend has emerged due to the combined abuse of methamphetamines and opioids. As of 2017, deaths attributed to this pairing exceeded deaths associated with meth alone.
However, the role of opioids in cocaine and meth overdoses has varied in degree. For example, 54% of all meth-related deaths in 2019 included opioids. In contrast, 75.5% of all cocaine-related deaths in 2019 also involved one or more opioids.
The results could explain why deaths from cocaine and meth have increased in recent years, suggested Hedegaard, an injury epidemiologist in the Analysis and Epidemiology Division at the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
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The overall trend identified in the analysis varied significantly across the US regions. For example, cocaine-opioid pairing accounted for more than 83% of all cocaine-related deaths in the northeast, but only 63% in the west.
Similarly, deaths from a combination of meth and opioids accounted for nearly 80% of meth-related deaths in the Northeast, but only 44% in the West.
The study team did not investigate why these drug combinations are so deadly.
Given that “these opioids are very potent and deadly,” the results are no surprise to Lindsey Vuolo, vice president of health law and policy at the Center on Addiction in New York City. She checked the results and was not part of the study.
The numbers, Vuolo said, “reflect previous trends: deaths from overdose-related cocaine and psychostimulants have increased [and] The rate of overdose of synthetic opioids – such as fentanyl – has also increased. “
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In fact, she found that the number of people dying from overdoses has indeed hit record highs. She cited recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed that approximately 88,000 people died from drug overdoses between August 2019 and August 2020.
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“That’s more than 240 people a day and a 26.8% increase over the previous year,” said Vuolo.
And “access to treatment has not improved much for people with addiction,” she added. “That is why there are still so many deaths from overdose. People die because they cannot get effective care. These deaths are preventable because addiction is treatable.”
And while the most recent study was done before the coronavirus pandemic, “the COVID pandemic is likely driving the rise in drug overdoses,” Vuolo said.
“The economic losses, grief, fear and social isolation lead to increased substance use and put people in recovery for relapse at risk,” she said. “With social distancing, people are increasingly taking drugs alone. And that means that in the event of an overdose, no one is around to give naloxone – the drug used to reverse opioid overdose – or to call 911, which increases the risk for a fatal overdose. “
COVID has also created increased barriers to personal care, added Vuolo, making treatment even more difficult.
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Hedegaard and her colleagues reported their findings in the April issue of the NCHS Data Brief.
More information
There’s more about the opioid epidemic at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Holly Hedegaard, MD, Injury Epidemiologist, Division of Analysis and Epidemiology, United States National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Hyattsville, Md .; Lindsey Vuolo, JD, MPH, Vice President of Health Law and Policy, Center on Addiction, New York City; NCHS Data Brief, April 2021
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