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The Economy and Its Impact on the Opioid Epidemic Goes Both Ways
Sure, the pandemic had a lot to do with what we’re seeing nationally, but economic problems and the stress they bring have a lot to do with rates of substance use and substance disorder. And those rates can both rise or fall in a good economy and in a bad economy.
I recently gave an interview to WTOP News (Washington, DC) about the opioid epidemic and how local impacts in light of the recent national numbers indicating that a record number of residents in the United States had died from opioid overdoses in the period between April 2020 and April 2021. As I stated in the interview, the forecast for 2021 was not looking any better. We have had a record number of deaths in the first two quarters of 2021, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. And, looking at the number of non-fatal overdoses reaching emergency departments in the third quarter and so far in the fourth, the opioid epidemic continues.
One of the things that I mentioned in the interview was the mental health pressures brought on by the pandemic:
“It is very unfortunate and it was something almost inevitable when you mix in what the…
