In April 2021, the United States passed a grim milestone: more than 100,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses in a single year.
According to a press release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rise was driven by opioids, particularly the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Fentanyl Overdose
The country is dealing with an increase in opioid-related mortality. And there’s little doubt that fentanyl is a major driver in the rise in fatalities. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, fentanyl is similar to morphine but 50 to 100 times more potent.
Van Duyne’s office provide the Associated Press with an analysis by Families Against Fentanyl, which specified an age range in its analysis.
The researchers compared synthetic-opioid-related mortality to other main causes of death found in another CDC data set on leading causes of death.
The CDC gathers data on the major causes of death in the United States. Heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19 were the leading causes of death among all American adults in 2020. According to preliminary estimates for 2021, these same health conditions will continue to be the major causes of mortality.
“Far more people die from cancer, heart disease, and COVID-19, compared to fentanyl overdose,” said Scott Walters, a professor of behavioral health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
Read more: TikTok tranquilizer challenge: Deadly internet trend hospitalizes 15 grade school pupils
Deaths Linked To Drug Overdose
According to data from the CDC’s online mortality database, more than 56,000 persons aged 18 and older died in synthetic opioid-related incidents in 2020. In 2021, nearly 70,000 people 18 and older died in synthetic opioid-related incidents.
A CDC spokesman neither confirmed nor denied that fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death among people aged 18 to 45. Synthetic opioid-related deaths are categorized as fentanyl-related deaths. According to the CDC, fentanyl accounts for roughly 90% of the synthetic opioids category.
According to the spokesperson, “accidents” will be the leading cause of death in the 18-to-45 age group in 2021.
Brandon Marshall believes, a professor of epidemiology at Brown University, opioid overdose is the leading cause of death among persons aged 18 to 45, with fentanyl playing a role in the majority of cases.
However, Marshall noted that many of these deaths were caused by numerous substances, not only fentanyl. According to experts, there are numerous methods to slice the data in the CDC database.
The data can yield different numbers for the number of synthetic opioid-related deaths depending on which underlying causes of death are selected in the database alongside the synthetic opioid cause-of-death code.
Dr. Lewis Nelson believes, chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and University Hospital, depending on how thinly you slice the information and data, fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of death for that age range.
According to Nelson, no other cause of death category comes close to the level of synthetic opioid-related deaths.
Nelson, on the other hand, stated that if fentanyl is discovered in the body after death, the death will be coded with synthetic opioids even if it is not the lethal agent.
Read more: American Express profits slide down to 9% due to late customer payments