Youth Opioid Overdoses Spiked During Pandemic

TOPLINE:

Prehospital opioid overdoses among young people increased sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 86.7% cases occurring in young adults aged 18-24 years, a new study shows. Overdoses among adolescents aged 12-17 years also showed a significant increase.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers performed a cross-sectional study of emergency medical services (EMS) encounters within the National EMS Information System for people ≤ 24 years from 2018 to 2022.
• The study included analysis of 8.8 million encounters reported by 5621 agencies.
• Nonfatal opioid overdose encounters were identified using International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification codes or a positive response to naloxone administration.
• Encounters with missing age, interfacility transfers, scene assists, nonground transports, and canceled activations were excluded.

TAKEAWAY:

• A total of 91,743 youth opioid overdose encounters were identified, and 66% received naloxone.
• Prepandemic encounters increased by 29.9 per month, largely driven by increases in overdoses among those age 18-24 years.
• Encounters were highest among individuals aged 18-24 years (87%), men (65%), and at private residences (58%).
• Adolescents aged 12-17 years were the only age group with a significantly increasing trend both before and during the pandemic (P = .006).

IN PRACTICE:

“Since so many overdoses occur at home, a critical message for parents of youth, especially adolescents, is to keep naloxone, an over-the-counter medication that can reverse opioid overdoses, at home. Providers also need to screen youth for substance use and risk of opioid overdose, since it is clearly a growing concern among young people,” lead author Jamie K. Lim, MD, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, said in a press release.

SOURCE:

The study was published online on September 18, in JAMA.

LIMITATIONS:

Potential changes in EMS agency coverage, unlinked encounters, and lack of consideration of race, ethnicity, and mortality outcomes due to missing and uncertain quality of data were the limitations of the study.

DISCLOSURES:

Sriram Ramgopal, MD, disclosed receiving grants from the Gerber Foundation. No other disclosures were reported. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.