Drug overdose deaths reached new high during pandemic. Here’s what experts blame

Over 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States during the 12 months following the initial lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number is a record high for drug-related deaths within a single year — the previous 12-month period, from April 2019 to April 2020, saw 78,056 deaths, the data shows.

The number also surpasses the number of deaths from car crashes, guns, and flu and pneumonia, The Associated Press reported.

Experts say the surge in deaths is likely a product of the challenges the coronavirus pandemic presented. People all over the country lost jobs, were cut off from their social networks and forced into limbo. In many cases, they had to watch — often from a distance — as their friends and family suffered from, and sometimes succumbed to, the deadly virus.

Those challenges likely had an especially profound impact on people who already struggled with substance abuse or were in recovery, as they’re prone to relapses and may have had their treatment postponed as health care providers pivoted to care for COVID-19 patients, The New York Times reported.

“Two forces here are the negative economic impact of the pandemic as well as the emotional impact,” Dr. Paul Christo, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told USA Today. “That led a lot of people to use drugs ... to cope.”

The increase in deaths from drug overdoses is also propelled by fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. The drug, which can be 100 times as potent as morphine, is sometimes prescribed to treat severe pain, including pain caused by advanced cancer. However, most cases of fentanyl-related harm or death in the U.S. are linked to illegally made and distributed fentanyl, which can be made cheaply, according to the CDC.

Specifically, other drugs, like heroin or cocaine, might be “cut” with fentanyl to boost their potency without increasing their cost much. This often happens without the user’s knowledge, The Guardian reported.

The number of deaths caused by fentanyl alone during this time period surpasses the number of all drug overdose deaths in 2016, The Washington Post reported.

“Many people are dying without knowing what they are ingesting,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told The New York Times.

Deaths from overdoses of other drugs, including heroin, cocaine, and natural and semi-synthetic opioids like prescription pain medication, also increased over the last year, the CDC said.

The majority of drug overdose deaths, about 70%, were of men between the ages of 25 and 54, The New York Times reported.

Other substances have also been increasingly abused during the pandemic. A survey conducted during the pandemic found that 17% of respondents age 21 and over reported drinking patterns that met the criteria for “heavy drinking,” according to a September news release from pharmaceutical company Alkermes, which commissioned the study from research firm The Harris Poll.

Many of those respondents attributed their alcohol consumption to negative mental, physical and psychosocial impacts of the pandemic — some said they continued drinking even though doing so contributed to their depression or anxiety, made another health problem worse, caused them to experience a memory blackout or led them to cut back on other activities to drink.

During a Wednesday, Nov. 17 news conference, senior government officials acknowledged the severity of the drug crisis, which the Biden administration has previously promised to address by expanding prevention and treatment programs and distributing fentanyl test strips and naloxone, used to treat overdoses, The Washington Post reported.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said at the news conference that “an overdose is a cry for help,” NPR reported.

“For far too many people that cry goes unanswered,” Gupta said. “This requires a whole lot of government response and evidence-based strategies.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Drug overdose deaths reached new high during pandemic. Here’s what experts blame."