Overdose deaths involving cocaine mixed with psychostimulants rising: CDC

Opioids mixed with cocaine or psychostimulants with abuse potential have driven overdose deaths in recent years, according to new findings from the CDC‘s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Opioids include natural and semisynthetic opioids such as opium, morphine, codeine, hydrocodone and oxycodone, as well as synthetic opioids such as methadone, fentanyl, and fentanyl analogs.

Psychostimulants with abuse potential are defined as drugs such as methamphetamine, amphetamine and methylphenidate, according to the CDC.

From 2011 through 2016, overdose deaths involving psychostimulants without opioid involvement were at a higher rate than those involving both drugs, but from 2017 to 2021, the rate of overdose deaths involving psychostimulants with opioid co-involvement has overtaken the former.

The study found the rate of drug overdose deaths involving both cocaine and opioids increased at a more rapid rate than cocaine overdose deaths without opioids since 2017.

Additionally, the percentage of drug overdose deaths involving cocaine and opioids, and those involving psychostimulants and an opioid, varied by region in 2021.

About 79 percent of overdose deaths in the U.S. that involved cocaine also involved opioids in 2021, but the percentage was different in each part of the country, with 84.5 percent in the Northeast, 79.6 percent in the Midwest, 75.1 percent in the South and 7 percent in the West.

In the same year, about 66 percent of U.S. overdose deaths that involved psychostimulants also involved opioids, but it also varied by region, with 80.6 percent in the Northeast, 69.5 percent in the Midwest, 68.3 percent in the South and 57.5 percent in the West.

“Estimates are based on the National Vital Statistics System multiple cause-of-death mortality files,” NCHS researchers noted.

The measurement of death rates involving specific drugs noted in the study may have been affected by jurisdiction differences, the study noted. While some drug overdose deaths may have involved other drugs, the report focused on drug overdose deaths involving cocaine or psychostimulants with or without the involvement of opioids.