Addiction engagement software solutions play a considerable role in treating addiction. A new government report has confirmed that fentanyl is the most commonly used drug involved in drug overdoses. The latest number that come from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics reveal that the rate of drug overdoses, involving the synthetic opioid, rose by about 113% each year from 2013 through 2016.
The number of total drug overdoses jumped 54% each year between 2011 and 2016. In 2016, there were 63,632 drug overdose deaths. According to the new report, which engaged in analyzing death certificates for drug overdose deaths in 2016, fentanyl was involved in nearly 29% of all overdose deaths in 2016.
In 2011, fentanyl was the reason behind just 4% of all drug fatalities. At that time, oxycodone was the most commonly involved drug. It represented 13% of all fatal drug overdoses. In 2016, over 18,000 overdose deaths involved fentanyl, and 16,000 fatalities were due to heroin.
Though many experts believe that overprescribing of prescription painkillers is at the root of the US opioid crisis, they say it has evolved, first into a heroin crisis and now into a fentanyl epidemic.