“Deaths from drug overdose in the United States increased by 54% from 2011 to 2016 — with opioids, benzodiazepines (benzos), and stimulants the most commonly used drug classes involved, a new report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), shows.
The report notes that there were 41,340 drug overdose deaths in 2011 vs 63,632 such deaths in 2016.
Although the opioid oxycodone was the most cited drug in overdose death records in 2011, heroin took the top spot from 2012 to 2015.
The story around fentanyl may be even more troubling. The rate of overdose deaths involving it or one of its analogs doubled each year from 2013 through 2016, when it finally took the lead in becoming the most mentioned drug. In 2016, 29% of all overdose deaths involved fentanyl (n = 18,335).”
Read more at: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/906434
Source: Medscape.com – December 12, 2018
