CDC study says fentanyl and its analogs responsible for 57 percent of opioid overdose fatalities

"New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the extent to which synthetic opioids like fentanyl, along with the drug’s numerous analogs, is driving increases in overdose deaths across the nation," Quinn Libson reports for Route Fifty. Overdose data on fentanyl and related synthetic opioids like carfentanil have been hard to track because it takes expensive special toxicology testing to detect them, so the CDC acknowledges in its findings that the data may be understating the problem.

Even with possible understatement of their impact, the results are alarming: Fentanyl was detected in almost 57 percent of the 5,152 opioid overdoses that occurred between July and December 2016 in the 10-state area studied. "Because of the potency of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs and the rapid onset of action, these drugs were determined by medical examiners and coroners to play a causal role in almost all fatal opioid overdoses in which they were detected," the CDC report says. 

CDC graph; click on it for a larger version

"Fentanyl analogs were found to be responsible for 720 deaths and of those analogs, carfentanil was by far the deadliest, accounting for as many as 389 fatalities," Libson reports. "The drug, which was originally developed as a sedative for big game like elephants and hippos, is fatal in doses as small as a few grains of sugar." Of those 389 carfentanil deaths, 354 happened in Ohio. Nearly half of the deaths involving fentanyl and its analogs also involved cocaine and heroin. That fits with reports that fentanyl and its analogs are sometimes mixed with cocaine or heroin. Most of the deaths studied in the report happened to non-Hispanic white males aged 25-44 years.

The report is the first of its kind to study toxicology data across multiple states. The data was available because of the Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance Program, "a CDC partnership which funded efforts to better track opioid-involved overdoses in 12 states in 2016. That program has since been expanded to include 20 new states and Washington, D.C.," Libson reports.