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Men were significantly more vulnerable than women to opioid and stimulant overdose deaths in 2020-2021, according to a new study analyzing data from death registries across the United States.
The study found that men had a 2 to 3 times higher death rate from opioid (such as fentanyl and heroin) and psychostimulant (such as methamphetamine and cocaine) overdose deaths. While men are known to use drugs at higher rates than women, the researchers found that this alone does not explain the gap in overdose deaths, noting that biological, behavioral, and social factors likely combined to increase the mortality risk of men.
The study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, was led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Although men and women are exposed to the modern supply of fentanyl-tainted drugs, something is causing men to die at significantly higher rates. It may be that men use drugs more frequently or in higher doses, which could increase their risk of death, or there may be protective factors among women that reduce their risk of death compared to men.”
Nora Volkow, study co-author and director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
“Understanding the biological, behavioral, and social factors that affect drug use and our bodies’ responses is critical to developing personalized tools to protect people from fatal overdoses and other harms from drug use.”
In 2021, nearly 107,000 people died from a drug overdose, much of it caused by the powerful and illicit fentanyl that now contaminates the drug supply. Data has consistently shown that the rate of drug overdose deaths is significantly higher for men than for women. Furthermore, the data suggests that men are more likely than women to use almost all types of illicit drugs.
Based on these data, the researchers sought to determine to what extent this known sex difference in overdose mortality varies by drug, state, and age, and to investigate whether the increased rate of overdose death among men was true when controlling for higher rates of drug use. misuse among men compared to women.
To do so, the researchers conducted a state-by-state analysis of nationally representative epidemiologic data on overdose mortality among persons 15 to 74 years of age between 2020 and 2021 on the US Research Platform (CDC WONDER).
The scientists also used nationally representative state-level data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to estimate and control for rates of drug misuse (taking drugs in a way not recommended by a health care provider). health care) among men compared to women. The NSDUH is conducted annually by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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