Deaths of drivers using opioids spike

Researchers lament worsening epidemic

USA TODAY

In one of the latest examples of the growing opioid epidemic, researchers found a sevenfold increase in the proportion of drivers killed while under the influence of prescription opioids since 1995.

Researchers at Columbia University examined drug testing results for 36,729 drivers in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and West Virginia who died within an hour of being in a car crash.

“The opiate epidemic is primarily defined by deaths from overdoses, but its health impact goes beyond those overdose fatalities,” said Guohua Li, the study’s senior author and director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University.

Li said he expects the increased proportion of fatal crashes involving prescription opioids to apply to this year as well.

In a paper published last month in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers found the prevalence of drivers with prescription opioids detected in their systems at the time of death surged from 1.0 percent in 1995 to 7.2 percent in 2015.

The three most commonly detected opioids were oxycodone, morphine and codeine. Nearly 70 percent of those who tested positive for prescription opioids also tested positive for other drugs, and 30 percent had elevated blood alcohol concentrations.

“Prescription opiates are so widely prescribed and used,” Li said. “People may think it’s not a big deal and it’s safe to go about routine activities like driving, but we’ve found this is not the case, especially when prescription opiates are used in combination with alcohol or other drugs.”

Mixing alcohol with opioids can increase sedation. It can also increase the risk of an overdose, as both have a depressant effect on the body.

A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported that an estimated 92 million U.S. adults used prescription opioids in 2015.

That’s more than the populations of California, Florida, New York and New Jersey combined.