The fact that Delaware, Tennessee, and Louisiana also rank among the states with the highest death rates demonstrates that substance abuse in older adults overdose fatalities affect diverse geographic regions with different economic conditions, population densities, and healthcare infrastructure. (Washington, D.C. – May 28, 2025) – Deaths due to drug overdose and alcohol misuse were down in the United States in 2023 and 2024 provisional data predict an unprecedented 27 percent one year drop in overdose deaths. These reductions follow two decades in which such deaths increased at an alarming pace. The improvements are encouraging and are likely related to a number of factors including investments in primary prevention, mental health, harm reduction, and overdose prevention programs. Still over 200,000 Americans died due to alcohol, drug overdose, and suicide in 2023, twice the rate of such deaths 20 years ago. CDC’s OD2A program provides the United States with robust data through its fatal (SUDORS) and nonfatal (DOSE) overdose data systems.
- The future offers an opportunity to craft a more unified response that moves the needle on one of the country’s most enduring public health crises.
- The rise of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, increasing early exposure among teens, and the economic burden exceeding $740 billion annually underscore the scale of the problem.
- Suicide deaths unchanged.The U.S. overall suicide mortality rate remained virtually identical from 2022 to 2023 (14.2 and 14.1 deaths per 100,000 people, respectively).
- The improvements are encouraging and are likely related to a number of factors including investments in primary prevention, mental health, harm reduction, and overdose prevention programs.
- The data reflect an urgent need to expand treatment capacity, tailor prevention for the most vulnerable demographics, and address the social determinants fueling substance abuse.
Addiction Help Newsletter – Sidebar
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. The rate also decreased for deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids and heroin between 2022 and 2023. For the same period, rates increased for drug overdose deaths involving psychostimulants and cocaine, and rates stayed the same for deaths involving methadone. Drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of injury death in adults and have risen over the past several decades in the United States (1–3). Overdoses involving synthetic opioids (fentanyl, for example) and stimulants (cocaine and methamphetamine, for example) have also risen in the past few years (1). This report presents rates of drug overdose deaths from the National Vital Statistics System over a 20-year period by demographic group and by the type of drugs involved, specifically, opioids and stimulants, with a focus on alcoholism treatment changes from 2022 to 2023.
Additional Dashboards and Datasets
The 11 consecutive months of declining death rates through October 2024 shows that comprehensive approaches combining enforcement, treatment, and harm reduction can achieve measurable results. However, current and proposed federal budget cuts, public health workforce reductions, and proposed federal agency reorganizations are likely to undermine this progress. The data also show that much more needs to be done to ensure that the reductions in alcohol, drug overdose, and suicide deaths are occurring in every community and among all population groups.
Treatment Data and Survey Summary
Montana has one of the highest per capita rates of alcohol-related deaths in the country. In Missouri, alcohol-related deaths are more likely to involve acute causes or individuals under 21. Statistics indicate Iowa is one of the nation’s leaders in chronic abuse among its alcohol-related deaths. Compared with much of the country, alcohol-related deaths in Indiana more often involve individuals under 21. Alaska has the nation’s second-highest rate of female deaths due to excessive alcohol. Alabama has the https://www.studio-sonntag.com/?p=2673 third-highest rate of under-21 deaths related to excessive alcohol use.
- Teenagers in New Jersey are 9.43% less likely to have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen.
- The increase in the number of fatalities is attributed to the rise of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.
- Recovery from addiction is a journey that spans personal, social, and systemic challenges.
- As most hallucinogens have no accepted medical use for treatment in the US, they are illegal.