The opioid crisis: an epidemic without a cure?

The opioid crisis in the United States has been considered a public health emergency since 2017. The country is facing a fourth wave of an overdose epidemic – one that also affects children. How to predict exit?

Since the 1990s, the United States has been plagued by an opioid crisis. Addiction to these products is spreading like an epidemic and overdose statistics have increased. Crisis responsible for 130,000 deaths in 2022. Among these substances, fentanyl – the most powerful painkiller – has wreaked havoc in the country since 2013. Added to this is another phenomenon, which is mortality and addiction among the very young. A baby addicted to opioids is born every 19 minutes.

How to set up a surveillance network for fentanyl overdose deaths?

In Île-de-France, the poisoning death system brings together death cases brought to justice for which at least one substance has been identified in supra-therapeutic concentrations. The Dr Lorraine DufayetForensic doctors have been working on identifying anonymous cases since 2017 to identify deaths associated with fentanyl or fentanyl ingestion.

By Celine Luzon

Opioids/opiates, what are these substances?

find out Thread La Science, the daytime show on CQFD’s X thread (formerly Twitter).

Fentanyl, the drug ravaging the United States (Le Monde, 2023)

Opioids and opiates: How they act on the brain (Science and Future, 2022)

Oxycontin, the painkiller that took America by storm (National Geographic, 2021)

Opioid analgesics: ANSM publishes overview of consumption in France (ANSM, 2020)

What is fentanyl, the drug that kills more people in the United States than heroin? (Le Monde, 2018)

Music references

Today’s Headline: Medicines don’t work By Richard Ashcroft

Opening credits: goka world By Altin Gun

End Credits: Pingpxng By Yin Yin