A study by the Yale School of Medicine revealed that more than 5,000 children and adolescents have died in the US in the past two decades from fentanyl overdoses.
According to research, recently published by the American Pediatric Medical Association, fentanyl-related deaths among minors increased more than 30-fold between 2013 and 2021, when the wave of synthetic opioid overdose deaths began in the country. .
The study examined reports of opioid deaths among people under the age of 20 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources from 1999 to 2021 and found that 5,194 children and adolescents lost their lives to fentanyl.
In 1999, only 9 deaths due to the substance were registered, while in 2021 the number increased to 1,557 deaths in children under 19 years of age, 40 infants and 93 children between 1 and 4 years of age, according to the study.
Fentanyl is now the leading agent seen in the pediatric opioid crisis, said Julie Gaither, study author and assistant professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Yale School of Medicine.
“No child should die from an opioid,” Gaither lamented. “It is not just a crisis that is affecting the adult population. It is something that is affecting everyone in this country, the most vulnerable, even infants.”
In 2021, the US recorded 70,601 overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, the largest increase in overdose deaths in the country’s history.
Gaither explained that in the 1990s, as the crisis intensified, prescription opioids were over-prescribed and people developed opioid use disorders. Since 2013, the majority of fatal overdoses have been caused by illegally manufactured opioids.
“The problem is getting worse and we have not addressed it,” Gaither warned, while stating that the measures taken “have not contained this crisis.” “Most of the measures are not specifically directed at children,” she stressed.
For young children, exposure usually occurs in the home, he said.
According to the study, 43.8% of deaths among people under the age of 20 occurred at home. About 87.5% of these overdoses were unintentional and benzodiazepines were found in 17.1% of the cases.
Deaths peaked across all age groups in 2020 and 2021, when the problem was exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic.
