Study: Pa. has many uncounted opioid deaths

A higher percentage of opioid-related deaths likely go uncounted in Pennsylvania than in any other state, a University of Pittsburgh study found.

The report, released Wednesday, concluded that 70,000 opioid-related deaths nationwide likely went unreported from 1999 to 2015 because, when some people died of opioid overdoses, coroners and medical examiners recorded the cause of death as “unspecified” drugs rather than opioids. As a result, the study found, national opioid death statistics drastically underestimate actual mortality numbers. National Institute of Health records show that 568,699 Americans died from overdoses from 1999 to 2015.

Researchers saw a “dramatic difference” in Pennsylvania’s opioid statistics when they adjusted for opioid deaths misleadingly listed as unspecified drugs, Jeanine M. Buchanich, the study’s lead author, said in an interview. Before the Pitt study, it appeared that Pennsylvania had the 22nd-highest number of opioid deaths in 2015. But the Pitt researchers found Pennsylvania was actually seventh in the country in this category.

“We do think that this is an important finding and we want to make sure that people recognize that it’s important to have these death certificates completed as fully as possible so that the magnitude of the opioid epidemic is understood,” Dr. Buchanich said.

The researchers reached their findings by combing through state by state mortality data, grouping overdose deaths into opioid-related, non-opioid-