The sixth study estimated that naloxone distribution in North Carolina averted 352 overdose deaths over a three-year period, at a cost of $1,605 per life saved 34. Average annual number of deaths from excessive alcohol use, including partially and fully alcohol-attributable conditions, increased approximately 29% from 137,927 during 2016–۲۰۱۷ to 178,307 during 2020–۲۰۲۱, and age-standardized death rates increased from approximately 38 to 48 per 100,000 population. During this time, deaths from excessive drinking among males increased approximately 27%, from 94,362 per year to 119,606, and among females increased approximately 35%, from 43,565 per year to 58,701.
The Blurred Lines Between Alcohol Use and Alcohol Addiction
This review points to research on other countries, like Australia, that resemble the U.S. in smoking and obesity but haven’t followed our marked life expectancy divergence. There’s “inconclusive evidence” that depression and anxiety, which can also harm physical health, rose over the relevant time period, and, the authors say, it’s also hard to figure out the link between conditions like depression and all the rising specific causes of death. But it is difficult to not conclude that overdose deaths, suicides, and accidents are not related. The Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and our own work7 has supported this with data showing that many opioid overdoses are passive suicide attempts and others are death by opioids.
Alcohol and Young Adults Ages 18 to 25
In order for alcohol manufacturers and distributors to stay in business, they must sell primarily to heavy, problematic, addicted drinkers. This targeting is no different from drug dealers, who also rely on regular customers for most of their sales. After all, the casual cocaine user is not the one making billions for difference between drugs and alcohol the cartels.
If you or someone you know is suffering from or at risk of an alcohol addiction
- Drug distributors, dispensers, and pharmacy chains (e.g., Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid) also contributed to and profited from overprescribing through their failure to monitor and investigate suspicious opioid prescribing patterns (Cuéllar and Humphreys, 2019; Hoffman, 2020).
- In a recent study of adults ages 25–۷۴ using data from the mid-1990s and early 2010s, Glei, Stokes, and Weinstein (2020) found that physical pain was linked more closely to the rise in the misuse12 of prescription opioids relative to other drugs.
- Not all studies of economic change and drug mortality focus on the magnitude of the effect, although when they do, they find that the impact of short- or mid-run economic change does not explain a large share of the overall increase in drug overdose deaths.
They expand their potential explanations for these trends by describing how the life circumstances of less-educated Whites have deteriorated over recent decades. They cite several examples, including the deterioration in wages, declining labor force participation, and declines in job quality among those without a college degree; the rise in family breakdown, including divorce, nonmarital childbearing, and single parenthood; changes in religious practices; and the decline in union representation. Many of these factors are features of largely working-class communities where manufacturing jobs disappeared long ago and where unemployment has become a permanent state.
Narrowing the Gap: The Burden of Alcohol, Drugs, and Firearms on U.S. Life Expectancy
They report that increased death rates from 1999 to 2015 were largely among White populations outside of large urban areas and that most increases were attributable to suicide, accidental poisoning, and liver disease. Although the study design was not causal, they conclude that the rise in mortality in these nonurban areas was caused primarily by harmful coping behaviors related to underlying social and economic factors in these communities, consistent with the despair hypothesis of Case and Deaton. As noted earlier in this chapter, drug poisoning mortality rates have risen in metro and nonmetro areas alike and across all racial/ethnic groups (to varying degrees) since the early 1990s. Scholars have debated whether the rise in drug poisonings is due to the increased availability of drugs (supply side) or the increased vulnerability of certain population groups (demand side). Scholars who support the former explanation point to the actions of legal and illegal drug suppliers and regulatory failures of government agencies, primarily the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) (Kolodny et al., 2015).
Over 3 million annual deaths due to alcohol and drug use, majority among men
During this period, mortality due to drug poisoning rose more than mortality from any other cause (see Chapter 4). This phenomenon affected all racial/ethnic groups, both men and women, and all U.S. states. Mortality from drug poisoning began to increase in the early 1990s, but these increases accelerated between the late 1990s and mid-2000s and then surged in the 2010s (Figure 7-1).
CDC Newsroom
- But it is difficult to not conclude that overdose deaths, suicides, and accidents are not related.
- Large metropolitan areas saw the fewest deaths and the smallest increase in the death rate between the 14 years.
- Synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, (up 16%), cocaine (up 8%) and other psychostimulants (e.g., methamphetamine and ecstasy) (up 28%) continue to drive drug-induced deaths higher.
The most notable differences by metro status occurred for Hispanic females, among whom alcohol-induced mortality was much lower in nonmetros than in other areas in the early 1990s, but higher than in other areas by the end of the period. There were slight increases among Hispanic women in all three age groups, but the increases were less than 1 death per 100,000 population. The FDA’s regulatory authority continues following the initial marketing approval of a drug, and postapproval monitoring may require ongoing evaluation and timely communication with health care providers and the public. However, these actions take place against a backdrop of industry activities that promote the use of the drug to providers and patients (NASEM, 2017, pp. 364–۳۶۵). Adi Jaffe, Ph.D., is an expert in mental health, addiction, and personal transformation and the author of The Abstinence Myth and Unhooked.
For most people, it takes many years of heavy drinking to develop and succumb to these diseases. Peak alcohol consumption in the United States occurred during the mid-1970s to early 1980s (see Figure 7-4; Haughwout and Slater, 2018). There was then a sharp drop in consumption between the early 1980s and 1997, followed by a slow rise starting in 1998. Assuming that the main cohort of drinkers during the peak consumption Substance abuse period (mid-1970s to early 1980s) were ages 20–۴۰, most of them would have been ages 35–۵۵ at the start of the study period (1990).
Report examines impact of alcohol, drug, and firearm deaths on life expectancy in the U.S.
States with the largest percentage increases had relatively high proportions of White residents, while states where the steepest percentage declines occurred had relatively high proportions of Black residents. The Biden administration raced to make this medication, a nasal spray that quickly reverses opioid and fentanyl overdoses, far more widely available. It’s distributed for free in many high-risk communities, and people using drugs often carry it. It’s unclear how many lives naloxone is saving each year, but many front-line public health workers tell me the impact is huge. Recent anecdotal data suggests from suicide hotlines and suicide text services have increased dramatically as COVID-19 has spread. Anxiety, by itself, can increase relapses in treated psychiatric illnesses including depression and also substance use disorders.