Opioid Overdoses Are Shortening Overall Life Expectancy

In a new study of the leading causes of death in the U.S., researchers say that opioids have contributed to a shortening of life expectancy. Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in JAMA that while life expectancy in the U.S. increased overall from 2000 to 2015, that improvement was blunted by deaths from opioid overdoses. (According to other recent research, deaths from opioid overdoses nearly doubled in the U.S. from 2009 to 2015.) The life expectancy for people born in 2015 increased by two years compared to people born in 2000, from 76 years to 78. Much of that gain was due to decreases in death rates from major killers like heart disease, cancer and infectious diseases. But alarmingly, that increase reversed between 2014 to 2015, for the first time since 1993. People born in 2015 were expected to live about a month less than people born the previous year. To find out why, Dr. Deborah Dowell, senior medical advisor in the division of unintentional injury prevention at CDC, and her colleagues analyzed data on leading causes of death. The major factors that contribute to a decrease in life expectancy are increasing death rates from conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, chronic liver disease (mainly from alcoholism) and unintentional injures, which includes car accidents as well as drug overdoses, the researchers found. In fact, the drop in life expectancy due to drug overdoses alone is about the same as the impact from Alzheimer’...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized are opioids painkillers drug addiction Drugs leading causes of death opioid addiction opioid epidemic opioid overdose opioid overdoses opioid pain killers what are opioids what is the leading cause of death Source Type: news