OD Deaths Decline in U.S., Driven By Drop In Opioid Fatalities

February 21, 2025
Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

America’s opioid crisis is showing signs of subsiding, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.

Drug overdose deaths (OD) decreased by 4% between 2022 and 2023, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

The overall OD death rate fell from 32.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022 to 31.3 deaths per 100,000 in 2023, the CDC says.

This reduction was driven by a decline in OD deaths related to opioids, the report says.

“Nationally, between 2022 and 2023, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths decreased for deaths involving any opioid and synthetic opioids other than methadone (which includes fentanyl),” concluded the team led by senior researcher Arialdi Minino, a CDC statistician.

However, OD deaths increased among users of stimulant drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine, researchers noted.

Across the country, drug OD deaths decreased in 20 states and did not change significantly in 25 states, researchers found.

The death rate increased in six states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Changes in OD death rates varied between states based on specific drug types, the report says:

Drug overdose deaths involving any opioid decreased in 20 states and increased in nine states.
Deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone decreased in 17 states and increased in 11.
OD deaths involving psychostimulants with abuse potential other than methadone decreased in nine states and increased in six.
Rates for deaths involving cocaine decreased in three states and increased in 13.

West Virginia (81.9 deaths per 100,000), the District of Columbia (60.7), Delaware (53), Tennessee (52.3), and Louisiana (50.6) had the highest OD death rates in the U.S. in 2023, researchers said.

The states with the lowest rates were Nebraska (9 deaths per 100,000), South Dakota (11.2), Iowa (14.9), North Dakota (16.4), Montana (17.1), Arkansas (17.7), and Texas (18.5).

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the opioid epidemic.

SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, report, Feb. 20, 2025

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