Anne Arundel County saw 43 opioid overdoses in the first 26 days of the new year, down from 53 overdoses for the same period in 2020. There were 10 overdose fatalities in that timeframe. The chart below compares overdose rates for the month of January over a 5-year span.
What are Opioids?
Opiates/ opioids are drugs that are used to relieve pain because of the way they suppress the central nervous system. This method of pain treatment causes many individuals to become tolerant of the drug. When this happens, a higher dose of the drug is needed to achieve the same pain-relieving effect. For many people, this is how addiction begins.
Who Suffers from Opioid Overdose?
The chart below illustrates the nationwide increasing death rate due to opioid use broken down by age group (Salmond & Allread, 2019).
The following graph shows the average racial breakdown of opioid overdoses nationwide (Salmond & Allread, 2019).
Opioid Overdose Response Training: Naloxone is a prescription medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose to prevent death. Save a life by learning how to identify signs of an overdose and administer naloxone. Go here to register.
Sources:
AAHealth.org. (2021, January 26). Opioid-related data. http://aahealth.org/opioid-related-data/
Salmond, S., & Allread, V. (2019). A population health approach to America’s opioid epidemic. Orthopaedic Nursing, 38(2), 95-108. https://doi.org/10.1097/NOR.0000000000000521
