Fatal drug overdoses increase notably in London and England as whole
- 8 Tem 2023
- 2 dakikada okunur
Is the opioid crisis expanding to England?
England has seen a 70% spike in fatal drug overdoses in the last decade, with over 4,000 deaths in 2020.
Nearly half of the overdoses in 2020 has been caused by opiates, making it the substance causing the most deaths. Cocaine and antidepressant came second and third.
Narrowing the scale to Inner London, 221 deaths were recorded in 2020 as a result of drug poisoning. That is a 37% increase from 2010.
In 2021, 46 drug poisoning cases happened in the timescale of a couple of weeks, alerting Public Health England to start an investigation to prevent further deaths, according to local paper News Shopper.
Overall, data shows a significant amount of increase in deaths related to drug use, especially opioids.
These trends could potentially point to an opioid crisis, one that has already taken over the US.
The prescribable nature of opioids, in contrast to drugs such as cocaine, makes it more accessible therefore potentially increase the chance of a user getting addicted.
The opioid crisis started with pharmaceutical companies pushing the prescribing of opioid drugs, commonly known as painkillers, by doctors to increase profit. However, the addictive nature of the drug caused patients to continue using the drug after finishing the instructed prescription.
First wave of the US’ opioid crisis started in 1990s, with following second and third waves in 2010 and 2013.
According to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), over 70% of the 70,630 deaths in 2019 involved an opioid in the US.
The following data indicates a significant rise in opioid deaths in England and in London, data that could possibly spark conversation on if there is an ongoing or future crisis at hand.
In 2010, a significant total of 1,384 deaths were caused by an opiate overdose. While the numbers went slightly down until 2012, there was a consistent upward trend in overdose deaths from 2013 to 2020.
210 opioid caused deaths occurred in London in 2020, and 2,138 in England overall.
CROP (Campaign to Reduce Opioid Prescribing) project first implemented in West Yorkshire, shows promise to reduce opioid prescribing and potentially opioid addiction.
The campaign urges GPs to ‘think twice’ before prescribing opioids to patients and has showed promising results.
According to a publication by the University of Leeds, the CROP project intervention in West Yorkshire resulted in 15,000 fewer people being put on opioids, saving NHS a net amount of £700,000.
Dr Sarah Alderson, who led the study, says that “The study shows that GPs can be highly effective in identifying other ways of supporting patients who experience chronic pain.
“If clinics want to join this study, they get in touch with us to show interest. We are planning a national clinical study but there’s still a long process ahead.”
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