WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2021) Drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine in the United States nearly tripled from 2015 to 2019, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a report on Wednesday.
"Researchers found that from 2015 to 2019, the number of overdose deaths involving psychostimulant drugs other than cocaine, (largely methamphetamine), rose from 5,526 to 15,489, a 180% increase," a press release summarizing the report said.
The study suggests that increases in higher-risk patterns of methamphetamine use, such as increases in the use of other drugs at the same time, may be contributing to US overdose deaths that reached record levels in recent years, the release said.
"We are in the midst of an overdose crisis in the United States, and this tragic trajectory goes far beyond an opioid epidemic," National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow said in the release.
Researchers also noted shifts in the populations using methamphetamine between 2015 and 2019. Whereas, historically, methamphetamine has been most commonly used by middle-aged white persons, this analysis found that American Indians/Alaska Natives had the highest prevalence of methamphetamine use, the release said.
The study sought to determine how trends in methamphetamine use contribute to drug overdoses, which killed a record 93,000 Americans in 2020, the release added.
