Key Takeaways
Although the opioid epidemic is a problem nationwide, it isn’t affecting the whole country equally. A new study finds that the crisis is disproportionately impacting certain hot spots and is most widespread in six states.
By digging deeper into the statistics, the researchers also found that several factors like age, gender, and mental distress can up a person’s risk for abusing opioids. The May study was published in the journalPLOS One.
Learning more about both the geography and the personal factors associated with opioid overdoses could help guide intervention and treatment, according to study co-authorDiego Cuadros, PhD,an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati.
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“Most of the research on the opioid epidemic focuses on how to develop drugs that aren’t produced with opiates in the first place, how to produce drugs to control the overdose, or understanding why particular individuals are getting addicted,” Cuadros tells Verywell. “I wanted to have a different look at the problem.”
“We found that, although we talk about the opioid overdose epidemic in the entire country, people think this is everywhere and everybody’s at the same risk,” Cuadros adds. “It definitely is not, it is in very particular areas.”
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“We confirmed that, basically, we don’t have the same distribution of this problem everywhere. It’s actually some particular areas, some particular hot spots, which is where the burden of the problem is very high,” Cuadros says. “These hot spots are located mainly close to the main cities, like for example, in Cincinnati, in Columbus, and also in Dayton, Ohio. So this again is very important because the key message from this study is that we need to focus the resources in those particular areas.”
Courtesy of the University of Cincinnati
The researchers found that the states with the highest density of opioid addiction-related deaths were:
Where we are born, our environment, what we are exposed to, and the services we have access to, all play a role in our health,Steven Powell, MD, MPH, chief medical officer at PursueCare and internist and psychiatrist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, tells Verywell. “The concept of using geographic and demographic knowledge to focus care and treatment is a developing science that is quite effective.”
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Beyond environment, researchers also found a few other factors that made an individual more at risk.
Cuadros explains that, although this correlation may seem like common sense, there hadn’t been enough data to show a solid link before. This might, arguably, be one of the most important takeaways from these findings because it once again shines a light on the hidden importance of mental health, according to Cuadros. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated mental distress.
Public Health
“The artificial separation of substance use disorder (SUD) from mental illness and medical conditions has led to a siloed healthcare delivery system,” Varun Choudhary, MD, MA, chief medical officer for behavioral health at Magellan Healthcare, tells Verywell. “It is now more important than ever to approach treatment in a comprehensive, integrated, and holistic manner to address all diseases and prevention efforts before they lead to additional unintended and dire outcomes.”
What This Means For YouIf you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357). It’s confidential, free, and runs 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year. It’s available in English and Spanish. If you call this helpline, they can give you referrals to local treatment centers, support groups, and other organizations.
What This Means For You
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357). It’s confidential, free, and runs 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year. It’s available in English and Spanish. If you call this helpline, they can give you referrals to local treatment centers, support groups, and other organizations.
Improving the Opioid Crisis Won’t Be Easy
Researchers say they now need to focus on why these specific locations are hardest hit, and why these specific subgroups of the population are most affected. “The drug addiction epidemic is more complex than, say, a virus epidemic, because you have many different agents, different drivers changing over time," Cuadros says.
They’re hopeful these findings can help policymakers think outside the box when it comes to tailored interventions.
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However, “the problem is not easy to solve,” Jagdish Khubchandani, PhD, professor of public health at New Mexico State University, tells Verywell.
Khubchandani isn’t hopeful for better results just yet. He says that, with the pandemic, opioid use may worsen unless serious and accelerated efforts are made to curb it. He suspects that data from 2018 onwards will continue to show results on this trajectory of growth.
“While the White House declared opioid use as a public health emergency, there are fewer boots on the ground and fewer initiatives than desirable," Khubchandani says. “Multipronged and interdisciplinary approaches are needed to reduce this problem."
Some key interventions, according to Khubchandani, should include:
“Hopefully, studies like the above can help find new ways to tackle the issue,” he says.
1 SourceVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Hernández A, Lan M, MacKinnon NJ, Branscum AJ, Cuadros DF.“Know your epidemic, know your response”: Epidemiological assessment of the substance use disorder crisis in the United States.PLoS One. 2021;16(5):e0251502. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251502
1 Source
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Hernández A, Lan M, MacKinnon NJ, Branscum AJ, Cuadros DF.“Know your epidemic, know your response”: Epidemiological assessment of the substance use disorder crisis in the United States.PLoS One. 2021;16(5):e0251502. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251502
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Hernández A, Lan M, MacKinnon NJ, Branscum AJ, Cuadros DF.“Know your epidemic, know your response”: Epidemiological assessment of the substance use disorder crisis in the United States.PLoS One. 2021;16(5):e0251502. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251502
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