For immediate release: May 10, 2017 (17-068)
Contact: Julie Graham, Strategic Communications Office, 360-810-1628
Contact: Brian Donohue, University of Washington, 206-543-7856
Investigation: Deaths
from fentanyl and related drugs rose to at least 70 in 2016
No
simple answers; deaths caused by variety of forms, types of use, and methods of
acquisition
Media Availability Today – 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. UW
Medicine at South Lake Union: 850 Republican Street (east side of street,
across from the trophy shop) Building C, Orin Smith Auditorium (adjoining the
lobby, directly above the parking garage)
OLYMPIA --The synthetic opioid fentanyl and
other fentanyl-like drugs were involved in the deaths of at least 70 people in
Washington in 2016, according to a joint investigation of state agencies.
Fentanyl drugs are a problem that appears to be increasing here, as elsewhere.
The Department of Health, the State
Toxicology Laboratory, the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Institute, and Public Health Seattle & King County collaborated on an
investigation to better understand how fentanyl-related drugs are being
obtained and used, and the extent of their influence on overdose deaths in our
state.
“While we still have a lot to learn
about how these drugs are influencing drug use and overdoses in our state, this
report answers some of our initial questions and gives us some insight to help
shape our response to this challenge,” said state health officer Dr. Kathy
Lofy. “We are committed to do as much as we can to prevent opioid-related
deaths in our state, and we’ll use what we’ve learned to help shape future
work.”
Fentanyl-involved deaths roughly
doubled from 2015 to 2016, though direct comparisons are not possible because
the state’s toxicology lab changed its test protocols in mid-2016 to identify
smaller amounts and new types of fentanyl-like drugs. In 2015, using the old
protocol, the toxicology lab identified 28 fentanyl-related deaths.
The 2015 protocol would have identified
53 fentanyl-related deaths in 2016; the new protocol identified an additional
17 deaths related to fentanyl and similar drugs.
Caleb Banta-Green, a senior research
scientist at the UW’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, analyzed medical
examiners’ data from King, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane counties, where 41 of
the 70 fentanyl-related deaths were recorded and where more details about those
deaths were available.
“Our review showed that most
overdoses involved fentanyl whose source is illicit or unknown,” he said.
“Fentanyl-related drugs are present in a substantial minority of cases, and
pharmaceutical fentanyl in a small proportion of cases. The source and form of
these non-pharmaceutical drugs is hard to determine, but appears to be often
purchased on the street or online, and often in the form of a powder or pill
that looks like a real pharmaceutical such as an opioid or a benzodiazepine.”
Fentanyl is a fast-acting, powerful opioid – 50 to 100 times more potent than
morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl compounds bought
on the street or on the internet may have unpredictable levels of potency,
making it hard to use a known or consistent amount or even to know what drug
you are taking.
Importantly, the illicitly produced
drug can be chemically indistinguishable from the pharmaceutical drug. However,
it is typically sold as a powder or a pill – forms not available by
prescription. Pharmaceutical
fentanyl is typically only available at hospitals for surgeries and occasionally
prescribed as a transdermal patch or a lollipop form to treat patients’ severe
pain.
Over the past several years, overdose
deaths from prescription opioids have declined while heroin deaths have increased.
Preliminary analysis of 2016 data shows there were 680 opioid-related overdose
deaths in Washington. During the past few years, approximately 700
opioid-related overdose deaths have occurred every year in Washington.
Recommendations for people who use
opioids and their friends and family:
- If anyone in your life uses any kind of
opioid (pharmaceutical or illicit) for any reason (pain and/or opioid use
disorder), you should know how to recognize and intervene in an overdose see www.stopoverdose.org to learn more.
- Don’t
ever use drugs alone.
- If
you see an overdose involving opioids, call 911, do mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing,
and use naloxone (a prescription drug which when given during an overdose may
stop it), which can be found at the following locations and at all Walgreens, Safeway, and
Albertson’s pharmacies in Washington.
- The
best long-term overdose prevention is treatment for opioid-use disorder with
methadone or buprenorphine, which support long-term recovery and reduce
overdose fatality rates by 50 percent. Contact the Washington Recovery Help Line (866.789.1511) to learn more about
opioid-use disorder and treatment options.
For more detail on the reports visit the Department of Health’s
website.
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