More rapid increase seen in rate of OD deaths involving cocaine plus opioids

The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths involving cocaine and opioids increased more quickly from 2011 to 2021 than the rate of overdose deaths involving cocaine alone, according to a July data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics.

Merianne Rose Spencer, M.P.H., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues examined trends in death rates involving cocaine and psychostimulants with and without opioid co-involvement from 2011 through 2021 using data from the National Vital Statistics System.

The researchers found that the age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths involving both cocaine and opioids increased more quickly from 2011 to 2021 than those involving cocaine alone. In 2021, 78.6 percent of overdose deaths involving cocaine also involved an opioid, with variation noted in the percentage, from 73.4 to 84.5 percent in the West and Northeast Census regions, respectively. The rates of overdose deaths involving psychostimulants without opioid involvement were higher than those involving both drugs from 2011 through 2016; from 2017 through 2021, rates involving both were higher. In 2021, 65.7 percent of overdose deaths involving psychostimulants also involved an opioid, with variation by region from 57.5 to 80.6 percent in the West and Northeast, respectively.

"This report highlights a continued increase in co-involvement of opioids in drug overdose deaths involving cocaine and psychostimulants over time," the authors write. "From 2011 through 2021, the rate of overdose deaths involving both cocaine and opioids increased more quickly than overdose deaths that involved cocaine but no opioids."

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