Nonfatal Opioid Overdoses Rose During COVID-19 Pandemic, Report Suggests

Data from an emergency department in Richmond suggests that the number of nonfatal opioid-related overdoses may have risen during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among people who are Black. Thefindings were published inJAMA.Taylor A. Ochalek, Ph.D., of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and colleagues compared the number of nonfatal opioid overdoses recorded in electronic medical records from VCU ’s Emergency Department from March to June 2019 with those that occurred from March to June 2020—the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. They found nonfatal opioid overdoses increased from 102 between March and June 2019 to 227 between March and June 2020. The increase in nonfatal opioid overdose visits occurred at the same time that the emergency department experienced a significant decline in the total number of emergency department visits, the authors reported.“This data is from the Richmond area, but it confirms what we’re hearing anecdotally from across the U.S.,” F. Gerard Moeller, M.D., director of the Wright Center and director of the VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, said in apress release. “The pandemic is more than a crisis of one disease. Its ripple effects will be felt for some time in the form of secondary health impacts like addiction.”Further analysis of patient characteristics of those who experienced a nonfatal opioid overdose during the three-month period in 2019 versus the three-month period in 2020 re...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: black COVID-19 emergency department JAMA nonfatal overdose opioid pandemic Source Type: research