United States: The number of drug overdose deaths in the US rose gradually after 2000, with approximately 109,000 deaths reported in 2022 – fentanyl is one of the most misused drugs.
There are far-reaching effects of drug overdose – Experts
The growing drug overdose menace has a far-reaching effect, says the experts in the US, as the number of people who die from drug overdose is increasingly being reported in the US.
Justin Phillips, founder, and CEO of Overdose Lifeline, an Indiana-based nonprofit focused on substance use disorder and prevention, said that the consequences for the family members of someone who died of a drug overdose had been tripled or quadrupled.
It is because the death of a loved one brings additional burden, and not only that, it also brings shame and blame rather than support to the family, as explained by Phillips, as USA Today reported.
Moreover, a study published on Wednesday stated the need for a better understanding of overdose loss is to be considered. The effects could be weighed on the basis of side- effects on the body by the abuser as well as by the effect on grieving loved ones.
Alison Athey, a clinical psychologist who is the lead author and an associate behavioral scientist at RAND, said, “The type of grief that people experience after this particular kind of loss can be really, really intense,” and, “It can impact their functioning and make it hard for them to get through their day-to-day life. And because of the stigma associated with overdose, it may be harder for people to deal with this type of grief,” as USA Today reported.
Result of previous research due to drug overdose
The previous research explored the harms of substance use disorders on the user – effects of addiction and incarceration rates on users, employment, and the health care system.
However, less attention is paid to the physical and mental health outcomes of people spared when the fatally combined fentanyl or methamphetamine causes death.
Overdose deaths ripple affects 125 million adults in the US
In the study published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers sampled over 2000 participants in RAND’s American Life Panel, a long-term web-based survey of American adults that began in February and March 2023.
The researchers discovered that over 42 percent of the respondents knew someone personally who had died from an overdose.
The researchers used census information to extrapolate and concluded that overdose deaths would create a ripple effect that would impact 125 million adults in the US who experienced the loss of overdose deaths in their circle, as USA Today reported.
There were geographic divergences, with larger numbers of people from New England and from the southern states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Women were more prone to loss, while in the case of married people, American-born individuals and city residents lost more frequently.
A third of those who had suffered from loss said that it had affected the normal course of their life. The scientists decided that about 40 million people in the US settle for takeout.
The same conclusion was come up in the report by the researchers of KFF regarding the impact of the opioid epidemic in the past July.