Data Show First Improvement in Combined
Substance Misuse and Suicide Mortality Rate in Five
Years but Multidecade Trends Remain Alarmingly High
WASHINGTON, July 31,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A decrease in the
alcohol-induced mortality rate led to a slightly lower combined
rate of all U.S. deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide in
2022, but the long-term trend of such deaths is still alarmingly
high, according to a report released today by Trust for America's
Health.
The report, Pain in the Nation 2024: the Epidemics of
Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths, includes data showing that
between 2002 and 2022, combined deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and
suicide have increased by 142 percent from 74,003 deaths in 2002 to
207,827 deaths in 2022.
For 2022, the alcohol-induced mortality rate decreased by six
percent to 13.5 deaths per 100,000 people, the first decrease in
the rate after more than a decade of increases, but death rates for
drug overdose and suicide remained unchanged.
Rates and trends for deaths due to substance misuse and suicide
vary across population groups and states and regions of the
country. While all population groups have experienced increases in
substance misuse and suicide deaths over the last two decades,
American Indian and Alaska Native people, Black people, and white
people have higher than average combined rates for alcohol, drug,
and suicide deaths.
In 2022, states with the highest rates of deaths due to alcohol,
drugs, and suicide were New Mexico
(124.3 deaths per 100,000 people), West
Virginia (115.7 deaths per 100,000 people), and Alaska (104.1 deaths per 100,000 people).
Substance use and drug overdose
The overall age-adjusted drug overdose mortality rate was
virtually unchanged from 2021 to 2022 (32.4 deaths per 100,000
people and 32.6 deaths per 100,000 respectively), but despite the
flat trend, 107,941 people died in the U.S. due to a drug overdose
in 2022.
According to data collected by the U.S. Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration, in 2022 approximately 70
million people in the U.S. aged 12 and older – about one-quarter of
the adolescent and adult population – reported using one or more
illegal drugs and just under 10 percent of people aged 12 and over
in the U.S. had a drug use disorder.
Drug overdose rates were highest among American Indian/Alaska
Native people at 65.2 deaths per 100,000 people, adults ages 35 to
54 (59.4 deaths per 100,000), Black people (47.5 deaths per
100,000), and males (45.6 deaths per 100,000).
Alcohol Misuse
Despite the decrease in alcohol-induced deaths in 2022, 51,191
people in the U.S. died from alcohol-induced causes during the
year. Alcohol-induced deaths were highest among American Indian and
Alaska Native people (78.4 deaths per 100,000 people) and adults
ages 55 to 74 (34.9 deaths per 100,000 people).
Suicide Deaths
In 2022, 49,476 people in the U.S. died from suicide. Overall
mortality due to suicide was virtually unchanged between 2021 and
2022: 14.1 deaths per 100,000 people and 14.2 deaths per 100,000,
respectively.
The highest rate of suicide was among American Indian/Alaska
Native people (27.1 deaths per 100,000 people), males (23 deaths
per 100,000), older adults (21 deaths per 100,000), and people
living in rural areas (20.5 deaths per 100,000). Suicide mortality
between age groups moved in different directions with suicide
deaths among young people (ages 0-17 and 18 – 34) decreasing while
increasing for all older age groups.
"While the stabilization in the combined rate of alcohol, drug,
and suicide deaths in 2022 is promising news, it is overshadowed by
decades of tragically increasing numbers of such deaths and
spotlights the need to continue to apply evidence-based solutions
in order to save lives," said J. Nadine
Gracia, M.D., MSCE, President and CEO, Trust for America's
Health. "We have strategies that we know work, including early
prevention and harm reduction strategies, creating safe and
supportive schools, ensuring access to mental and behavioral
healthcare, and creating community conditions that support children
and families. We need to invest in these policies and
programs."
Report Recommendations
The report includes recommendations for steps that federal,
state, local government and other stakeholders should take to
address the substance misuse and suicide crisis, including:
Invest in prevention and community conditions that promote
health, including programs to reduce adverse childhood
experiences and those that support families and offer
trauma-informed and culturally appropriate services for youth.
Reduce overdose risk and access to lethal means of
suicide through harm reduction programs including syringe
services programs, access to overdose prevention medications like
naloxone, and promoting safe storage of all firearms.
Strengthen the mental health and substance use prevention
system by continuing to build a continuum of crisis
intervention programs, ensuring access to mental health and
substance use services, and growing the mental health workforce
while increasing its diversity and offering more culturally and
linguistically responsive services.
Read the full report at:
https://www.tfah.org/report-details/pain-in-the-nation-2024
Trust for America's Health is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public
health policy, research, and advocacy organization that promotes
optimal health for every person and community and makes the
prevention of illness and injury a national priority. Trust for
America's Health (tfah.org)
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SOURCE Trust for America's Health