Drug overdose deaths
From Drug Rehab Wiki
Here are the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (Data from the National Vital Statistics System Mortality File)
• From 1999 through 2006, the number of fatal poisonings involving opioid analgesics more than tripled from 4,000 to 13,800 deaths.
• Opioid analgesics were involved in almost 40% of all poisoning deaths in 2006.
• In 2006, the rate of poisoning deaths involving opioid analgesics was higher for males, persons aged 35-54 years, and non-Hispanic white persons than for females and those in other age and racial/ethnic groups.
• In about one-half of the deaths involving opioid analgesics, more than one type of drug was specified as contributing to the death, with benzodiazepines specified with opioid analgesics most frequently.
• The age-adjusted death rate for poisoning involving opioid analgesics varied more than eightfold among the states in 2006.
The CDC statistics show that drug-related deaths outnumber deaths due to motor vehicle accidents in a growing number of states. Crashes still cost more lives nationwide, but state-by-state calculations show the rate of death due to drugs is outpacing deaths due to car accidents in 16 states in 2006. In 2003 this was the case in only eight states.
The second leading cause of injury deaths was poisoning, and this was the leading cause of injury death for people aged 35-54 years, more than firearm-related and motor vehicle-related deaths in this age group.
Most drug-related deaths are due to overdose. There was a large increase in fatalities due to cocaine overdose and to drugs known as opioid analgesics, which include prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, oxycodone, and Vicodin as well as sedatives.
From 1999 to 2006, the number of deaths due to opiate overdose increased for every age group. Deaths from methadone alone increased sevenfold, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released Wednesday.
Based on death certificate data, CDC researchers counted more than 45,000 U.S. deaths from motor-vehicle crashes in 2006, and about 39,000 from drug-induced causes. The CDC does not have finalized data for 2007 or subsequent years.
The study also showed:
• About 90 percent of drug deaths were due to sudden overdose
• Count also includes those who died from organ damage due to long-term drug abuse
• 2006 death rates were higher for drugs than for vehicle accidents in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, believes there are many reasons for this shift. For one thing, traffic death rates are going down. Margaret Warner, an epidemiologist who co-authored the new CDC report, calls this fact "one of the great public health triumphs" of the last few decades.
Famous Drug Overdose Deaths
