Pacific D
Drug Overdose Deaths Among Adolescents (306674)
*Turaj Vazifedan, Children Hospital of The King's DaughtersKeywords: Drug Overdose, Opioid epidemic, Adolescents
The opioid epidemic in the US has become a national crisis; however, the information in the existing literature is scarce regarding the opioid overdose rate among adolescents. This research focuses on unintentional and accidental drug overdose among adolescents between ages 11 and 21 from 1999 to 2017. The Average Percentage Change (APC) and Annual Average Percentage change (AAPC) were calculated using joinpoint regression analysis. The results of this research revealed that pharmaceutical opioids and heroin were the leading causes of drug overdose death among adolescents by 8.7 and 5-folds increase from 1999 to 2017. In males, the APC of overdose death involving heroin increased significantly between 1999 and 2007, while female adolescents had a considerably sharper APC for heroin in the 2007-2015 period. From 2007 to 2014, the APCs of pharmaceutical and cocaine were steady for females, while significantly decreased in male adolescents. Although the role of prescribed opioids on the opioid crisis has been emphasized, this report revealed that between 2012 and 2016, the rate of heroin overdose death among adolescents was higher than each component of pharmaceutical opioids.