Study Finds More Than One Million Years Lost as Teens and Young Adults Died from Drug Overdoses in Last Four Years

There is no good news associated with the opioid epidemic that is currently sweeping across the United States. Some new reports regarding the opioid epidemic though are more depressing than others. For example, a recent study has uncovered the highly depressing statistic that more than 200,000 teenage and adolescent (from the ages of 10 to 19) years of life have been lost as a result of accidental drug overdoses between the years 2015 and 2019.

When you expand the “qualifying age” to include young adults aged up to 24 years, that depressing figure rises even further to an astounding 1.25 million years.

The Opioid Epidemic is Costing Young People in Terms of Years Lost from Potential Lives

“Counting the number of adolescent deaths doesn’t accurately reflect what we lost when we lose someone so young,” said the report’s lead author, Dr. O. Trent Hall. Dr. Hall is an addiction medicine physician based at the Ohio State University. “Each one of these years is a year that people didn’t have with their loved one, and it’s important to think of that when we’re prioritizing our public health.”

The study took a look at the total number of overdose deaths of more than 21,500 people aged between 10 and 24 between 2015 and 2019. To calculate the total number of years of life lost, the study estimated the potential lifespan of each person who died as being 78.8 years, which is the average life expectancy as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By subtracting the age at which each person died from the average life expectancy and adding up all the totals, the study arrived at that depressing figure of 1.25 million years.

The Global Pandemic Caused by COVID-19 Plus the Prevalence of Fentanyl May See These Figures Increase Further

“The pandemic was a big catalyst for social isolation, and addiction and mental illness is an isolating disease,” said Dr. Edwin Kim, who is medical director at the Charles O’Brien Center for Addiction Treatment at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “A lot of younger folks, especially, don’t know how to ask for help.”

If your life has been adversely affected by opioids and you need help in claiming it back, then you need to speak to us here at Advanced Rapid Detox. We can help clear your body of opioids in as little as three days, all while you are under the care of trained professionals at a controlled medical facility. To learn more, please contact us at (800) 603-1813, or online here.