Overdose-related cardiac arrests skyrocketed in the United States during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis in JAMA Psychiatry.
The study’s authors examined federal emergency medical services (EMS) data.
“Frontline healthcare professionals and officials have sounded the alarm that the social and economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic may impede efforts to flatten the overdose curve,” wrote first author Joseph Friedman, MPH, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues. “However, the state databases tracking overdose mortality often have long lags that stymie timely analysis and response. EMA data provide a novel source of near-real-time information to track epidemiological trends during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Friedman et al. found that overdose-related cardiac arrests “rose sharply” in April 2020, hitting 74.1 per 100,000 EMS activations by early May. This represented an increase of 123.4% above baseline.
Through Aug. 1, the rate of such incidents was 49.5 per 100,000 EMS activations, or 48.5% above baseline.
“Peak rates in May 2020 were more than double the baseline from 2018 and 2019, and overall 2020 values were elevated by approximately 50%,” the authors wrote. “The temporal similarities to decreased mobility suggest that the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic—perhaps especially social isolation—is sharply accelerating fatal overdose trends. The lack of a commensurate sharp increase in total (fatal and nonfatal) overdose incidents could indicate a rising overdose case fatality rate in a context of more stable, albeit elevated, overdose rates.”
As more data becomes available, the team added, these statistics should be confirmed. For now, it does seem clear that current policies have failed to manage the overdose risk affecting so many Americans.
Going forward, the authors concluded, investments in “substance use treatment, harm reduction, and structural drivers of overdose” should become a crucial part of the U.S. response to this ongoing pandemic.
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Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.