CDC: Heroin deaths decline in R.I., synthetic opioid deaths climb

THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION said Rhode Island was among the states with statistically significant changes in drug overdose death rates involving synthetic opioids (excluding methadone) from 2014-15. Deaths increased 67.1 percent, to 137 from 82 over that time frame. / COURTESY CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION said Rhode Island was among the states with statistically significant changes in drug overdose death rates involving synthetic opioids (excluding methadone) from 2014-15. Deaths increased 67.1 percent, to 137 from 82 over that time frame. / COURTESY CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

PROVIDENCE – Heroin deaths may have declined 32 percent in Rhode Island from 2014 to 2015, but the Ocean State still has among the highest rates of death from drug overdoses in the country.
Heroin deaths declined over the year in Rhode Island, to 45 in 2015 from 66 in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently.
However, last year, Rhode Island was among the top five states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdoses with 28.2 per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.
States with higher rates of deaths due to drug overdose than Rhode Island were West Virginia (41.5 per 100,000), New Hampshire (34.3 per 100,000), Kentucky (29.9 per 100,000) and Ohio (29.9 per 100,000).
The Ocean State also was among states with statistically significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2014 to 2015. There were 310 deaths last year, compared with 247 in 2014.
Sixteen states had increases in synthetic opioid death rates from 2014 to 2015, with the greatest percent increases in death rates in New York (135.7 percent), Connecticut (125.9 percent) and Illinois (120 percent).

Synthetic opioids exclude methadone but include drugs like tramadol and fentanyl, the CDC said.

In addition, when comparing the number of deaths and lives affected in each state per 100,000 people, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia had the largest rate increases of synthetic opioid deaths from 2014 to 2015.

Rhode Island’s percentage increase was 67.1 percent, as it had 137 synthetic opioid deaths last year compared with 82 in 2014. Massachusetts’ percentage increase was 108.7 percent, with 949 deaths in 2015 versus 453 in 2014.

- Advertisement -

Methadone deaths in Rhode Island increased to 30 last year from 24 in 2014, the CDC said.

In 2015, more than 52,000 people nationwide died from a drug overdose; of those, 33,091 (63.1 percent) involved a prescription or illicit opioid. Since 2000, more than 300,000 Americans have lost their lives to an opioid overdose, the CDC said.
“Too many Americans are feeling the devastation of the opioid crisis either from misuse of prescription opioids or use of illicit opioids,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement. “Urgent action is needed to help health care providers treat pain safely and treat opioid use disorder effectively, support law enforcement strategies to reduce the availability of illicit opiates, and support states to develop and implement programs that can save lives.”
The CDC said that the increase in opioid overdose death rates is driven largely by illicit opioids, like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

No posts to display