Methadone Hydrochloride

THURSDAY, Dec. 19, 2024 -- After years of decline, U.S. life expectancy is finally on the rise again for the first time since 2019, new government research shows. This turnaround was driven in part by a decline in drug overdose deaths, which had risen dramatically as a result of the opioid epidemic, according to a second report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That includes the first reduction in OD deaths caused by powerful synthetic opioids like fentanyl and tramadol, researchers said. “The age-adjusted rate for drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone decreased from 2022 to 2023, the first such decrease since the large increases that began in 2013,” concluded the research team led by Matthew Garnett , an injury epidemiologist and statistician with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). “The rate also decreased for deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids and heroin between 2022 and 2023,” the team added. Life expectancy at birth in 2023 was 78.4 years for the total population, an increase of 0.9 years from 77.5 in 2022, CDC researchers reported. For men, life expectancy increased 1 year, from 74.8 in 2022 to 75.8 in 2023. Meanwhile, women saw a 0.9-year increase, from 80.2 in 2022 to 81.1 in 2023. “From 2022 to 2023, age-adjusted death rates decreased for 9 of the 10 leading causes of death,” wrote the life expectancy research team led by Elizabeth Arias , a health scientist with the NCHS. Deaths due to heart disease, accidental injury, stroke, respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease and COVID-19 all fell significantly between 2022 and 2023, researchers found. The rate of cancer deaths also went down, but not significantly, the report says. The end of the pandemic likely contributed to the increase in life expectancy, researchers said. “The most notable change was for COVID-19, which dropped from the 4th leading cause in 2022 to the 10th leading cause in 2023,” the researchers wrote. Overall, COVID deaths decreased more than 73% between 2022 and 2023, falling from 44.5 deaths to 11.9 deaths per 100,000, researchers said. A decrease in drug OD deaths also contributed to improved life expectancy. The rate of drug overdose deaths fell from 32.6 per 100,000 in 2022 to 31.3 per 100,000 in 2023, researchers said. Drug OD deaths are considered accidental injury deaths. These results jibe with statistics released last week by the CDC, which reported that drug OD deaths had decreased 17% between July 2023 and July 2024. However, the OD death rate is still 3.5 times what it was in 2003, when 8.9 people for every 100,000 died by drug overdose. Drug OD deaths related to synthetic opioids declined by 2.2% between 2022 and 2023, results show -- the first significant decline in OD deaths related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl since 2003, researchers added. Drug overdose deaths related to natural opioids like morphine, oxycodone and hydrocodone also declined 17.1%, between 2022 and 2023, and OD deaths caused by heroin decreased 33.3%. However, OD death rates for cocaine increased by 4.9% between 2022 and 2023, and OD deaths from stimulants like methamphetamine increased by 1.9%, researchers said. Lastly, infants did not seem to benefit from the declining death rates, researchers found. “The infant mortality rate of 560.2 infant deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023 was not significantly different from the rate in 2022,” the researchers wrote. The ten leading causes of infant death in 2023 -- birth defects, low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome, unintentional injuries, maternal complications, bacterial sepsis of newborn, cord and placental complications, respiratory distress of newborn, intrauterine hypoxia and birth asphyxia, and diseases of the circulatory system -- accounted for more than 65% of all infant deaths, researchers concluded. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

THURSDAY, Dec. 19, 2024 -- Life expectancy in the United States increased in 2023, reaching 78.4 years, while drug overdose mortality decreased from 2022 to 2023, according to two December data briefs published by the National Center for Health Statistics. Sherry L. Murphy, from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues used data from the National Vital Statistics System to examine mortality patterns in the United States. The researchers found that from 2022 to 2023, there was an increase of 0.9 years in life expectancy for the U.S. population, reaching 78.4 years in 2023. The age-adjusted death rate decreased 6.0 percent, from 798.8 to 750.5 deaths per 100,000 standard population from 2022 to 2023. For all age groups 5 years and older, age-specific deaths rates decreased from 2022 to 2023. Matthew F. Garnett, M.P.H., and Arialdi M. Miniño, M.P.H., also from the National Center for Health Statistics, present the rates of drug overdose deaths from the National Vital Statistics System over 20 years, focusing on changes from 2022 to 2023. The researchers found that from 2003 to 2022, there was an increase in the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths, from 8.9 to 32.6 per 100,000 standard population, but the rate decreased to 31.3 in 2023. From 2022 to 2023, rates decreased for people aged 15 to 54 years and increased for those aged 55 years and older; rates decreased for White non-Hispanic people and remained the same or increased for other race and Hispanic origin groups. "The age-adjusted rate for drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone decreased from 2022 to 2023, the first such decrease since the large increases that began in 2013," Garnett and Miniño write. Data Brief 1 Data Brief 2 Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.