While the world has been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing overdose epidemic has continued to skyrocket, with a record high 70,000 deaths in 2019. Nora Voklow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), explains, “We do not yet have nationwide data that capture the full impact of Covid-19 and its related societal effects on overdose deaths…[but] some indicators show troubling increases associated with [it].” She points to a few data points that currently exist, including:

• The CDC provisional drug overdose death count, which has been updated through April 2020, and shows an increase in overdose deaths.
• The Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program(ODMAP) data, a surveillance system that provides near real time suspected overdose data nationally, which shows a 17.59% increase in suspected overdoses following the enactment of stay-at home orders.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicagold/2020/12/14/overdoses-are-increasing-in-the-us-over-covid-19-heres-what-addiction-experts-want-you-to-know/?sh=7c735d3d4ffa