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U.S. Life Expectancy Continues to Decline Due to Opioid Crisis

posted by janrinok on Friday December 22 2017, @11:02PM   
from the that's-what-averages-do dept.

takyon writes:

There were 42,249 deaths due to opioid overdoses in 2016, compared to a projected 41,070 deaths from breast cancer in 2017 (42,640 in 2015). U.S. life expectancy has dropped for the second year in a row:

The increase largely stemmed from the continued escalation of deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which jumped to 19,410 in 2016 from 9,580 in 2015 and 5,540 in 2014, according to a TFAH analysis of the report.

[...] The surge in overdose deaths has depressed recent gains in U.S. life expectancy, which fell to an average age of 78.6, down 0.1 year from 2015 and marking the first two-year drop since 1962-1963.

In a separate report, the CDC linked the recent steep increases in hepatitis C infections to increases in opioid injection.

Researchers used a national database that tracks substance abuse admissions to treatment facilities in all 50 U.S. states. They found a 133 percent increase in acute hepatitis C cases that coincided with a 93 percent increase in admissions for opioid injection between 2004 to 2014.

From the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Mortality in the United States, 2016
• Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999–2016

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Original Submission

• Re:I hope it continues Re:I hope it continues (Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Friday December 22 2017, @11:47PM (1 child)

  by VLM (445) on Friday December 22 2017, @11:47PM (#613447)

  anybody who hurts their toe and goes to a doctor for it.

  The other side of the coin is I go thru periods of weightlifting and being a flabby lazy bastard, and in one lazy bastard era, I screwed up my back and the urgent care doc was pretty useless until I convinced him I was completely uninterested in obtaining opiates and honestly wanted to figure out how to fix my back, at which point he perked way up and his motivation level went from about 2 to about 11, was actually kinda creepy. Total voice and attitude change. He cracked open some anatomy books to show me the exact muscle bundle I damaged, and gave me detailed treatment instructions, that ended up working 100%... You could tell the poor doc spent too much time arguing with addicts and he was very excited to have a genuine medical patient...

  In summary, if you want better medical service, unfortunately first you gotta convince the doc you're not a junkie looking for a fix.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Interesting=2, Informative=1, Total=3
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5

• Re:I hope it continues (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 23 2017, @07:42PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 23 2017, @07:42PM (#613670)

  Creepy? Someone gets interested in helping you once they find out you're not just trying to scam them? I call that amazing, wonderful, inspiring, hopeful. Pretty much everything other than creepy.

  You're dealing with human nature, when people get burned 90+ percent of the time they stop entering interactions with hope and interest.

  PS: please close your quote tags better.

  Parent