Overdose deaths decline slightly
Coroner: Half of overdose deaths in 2020 have been in persons over age 45
WEST GOSHEN » Figures released by the Chester County Coroner’s Office show a continued decline in drug overdose deaths in the county during the first six months of 2020.
A total of 58 deaths have been confirmed to be due to an accidental drug overdose in the period from Jan. 1 to June 30, according to a news release. This is fewer than the 68 overdose deaths reported mid-way through 2019, but the release cautioned that it is not possible to accurately predict a total for all of 2020 given the figures from the first six months.
In 2019, for example, the second half of the year saw a drop in overdose deaths so the total for the year was 105 deaths.
Since 2015, when the coroner’s office began reporting statistics on drug overdoses as the opioid epidemic began to gain notice in the nation, the county has recorded some 472 deaths from drug overdoses, either accidental or deliberate suicides. There were 144 accidental overdoses in 2017 and 107 in 2018.
Although there have been news reports of surges in drug overdose deaths elsewhere in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic, that trend has not been observed so far in Chester
County, Coroner Dr. Christina VandePol reported. The state Department of Health has no 2020 drug death data on its website at this time.
According to the coroner, the demographic profile of those who have died of an accidental drug overdose so far in 2020 has shifted compared to previous years. While the affected population remains predominantly male — at 82 percent — and white — at 80 percent — almost half of overdose deaths this year have been in those over age 45.
By comparison, for all of 2019, only 31 percent of deaths were in those over age 45. The oldest person dying of a drug overdose so far in 2020 was in their 70s.
“We are no longer surprised
to find that someone in their 50s, 60s, or 70s died of an overdose,” said VandePol. “Many of the older decedents had a long history of substance abuse, sometimes decades, and it was not always suspected or identified by their health care providers, if and when they sought help for other problems.
“Addiction ravaged many of these lives over time, resulting in homelessness, unemployment, and estrangement from family,” VandePol continued. “Alcoholism was a common co-existing or pre-existing condition in this population. I will be sharing these findings with the Chester County Overdose Prevention Task Force. I believe a customized approach is needed to reach this older demographic.”
In the office’s report, it was also noted that toxicological tests showed that fentanyl, a synthetic opioid
found in approximately 78 percent of 2020 deaths in the county, remained the predominant drug responsible for overdose deaths, although most fatalities involved multiple drugs, both illicit and prescription.
Methamphetamine replaced heroin as the second most common drug found in overdose deaths. Methamphetamine was present in 30 percent of cases so far in 2020, compared to about 18 percent in all of 2019. Xylazine, a large animal anesthetic presumably used as a cheap adulterant, was present in 28 percent of cases, always in combination with other drugs, usually including fentanyl.
The Coroner’s Office had issued a statement about xylazine when it first appeared in the county’s report on overdose deaths early in 2019 and has steadily increased since then.