By Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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THURSDAY, Nov. 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) — After decades of battling the opioid epidemic, U.S. health officials reported Wednesday that overdose deaths have now declined for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n
By how much did these deaths of despair drop? There were about 97,000 overdose deaths in the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to new provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s down from an estimated 113,000 overdose deaths reported for the previous 12-month period.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a pretty stunning and rapid reversal of drug overdose mortality numbers,\u201d Brandon Marshall<\/a>, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends, told the Associated Press. <\/em>\u201cThis seems to be substantial and sustained. I think there\u2019s real reason for hope here.\u201d<\/p>\n Opioid painkillers first started fueling an increase in overdose death rates during the 1990s, followed by other more potent opioids like heroin and fentanyl<\/a>. Provisional data had indicated a slight drop in overdose deaths for 2023, and the latest tally has kept that decline going.<\/p>\n While experts couldn’t single out one factor that would explain the decrease, they did point to the pandemic as a possible player.<\/p>\n During lockdowns and social distancing, addiction treatment was hard to find and people were isolated — with no one around to help if they overdosed.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the pandemic we saw such a meteoric rise in drug overdose deaths that it\u2019s only natural we would see a decrease,\u201d Farida Ahmad<\/a>, of the CDC\u2019s National Center for Health Statistics, told the AP<\/em>.<\/p>\n On top of that, the increased availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone<\/a> and addiction treatments such as buprenorphine<\/a> may be saving lives, Erin Winstanley<\/a>, a University of Pittsburgh professor who researches drug overdose trends, told the AP<\/em>.<\/p>\n In the latest CDC data, overdose death reports are down in 45 states, with only five — Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington — reporting increases.<\/p>\n One limitation of the new provisional data is that it doesn\u2019t detail what\u2019s happening in different racial and ethnic groups.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really need more data from the CDC to learn whether these declines are being experienced in all racial ethnic subgroups,\u201d Marshall noted.<\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more on preventing overdoses<\/a>.<\/p>\n