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Opioid overdoses up among teens ages 15–19
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the brown university child and adolescent psychopharmacology update
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7567
pISSN - 1527-8395
DOI - 10.1002/cpu.30242
Subject(s) - heroin , opioid overdose , drug overdose , medicine , psychiatry , opioid , poison control , demography , medical emergency , drug , (+) naloxone , receptor , sociology
Teens aged 15 to 19 are dying at increased rates from opioid drug overdoses, the National Vital Statistics System, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported last month. The death rate more than doubled from 1999 (1.6 per 100,000) to 2007 (4.2), declined mainly among males by 26% from 2007 to 2014 (3.1), and then increased in 2015 (3.7). The majority of these overdoses were unintentional, and in 2015 were highest for opioids—in particular, heroin. In 2015, there were 772 drug overdose deaths in this age group; of these, 80.4% were unintentional, 13.5% were suicide, 5.2% were of undetermined intent, and 0.9% were homicides. Males (86.2%) were more likely than females (70.1%) to have overdosed unintentionally, and 21.9% of overdose deaths among females were suicide, compared with 8.7% for males.