Despite recent efforts to combat fatal overdoses from the synthetic opioid fentanyl, the numbers remain concerningly high, as new data shows deaths are on the rise, most notably in children.
Data published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics shows that fentanyl overdoses among children and teens increased more than 30-fold from 2013 to 2021.
In the past two decades, more than 5,000 children have fallen victim to fentanyl-related overdoses, and data shows that more than half of those deaths occurred in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, there were 1,550 pediatric deaths caused by fentanyl, a figure that has jumped 3,740% since 2013, when researchers said that the epidemic of overdose deaths caused by synthetic opioids started in the U.S.
When it comes to the ages of those who fatally overdosed, the data says that 40 infants and 93 children ages 1 to 4 were among those who lost their lives to fentanyl.
As for older adolescents, the author of the new research letter, Julie Gaither, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, shared that casualties appear to be mirroring what’s happening with adults.
“It’s recreational drug use, and then they either intentionally taking fentanyl or it’s being cut into the drugs that they’re using,” Gaither said. “That’s a story that’s much easier to understand.”
As for those who are younger, Gaither said it’s harder to explain, but with the drug being so potent, “it doesn’t take much for them to take a lethal dose.”
The published data shows that in 2021, almost 70,000 adults in the U.S. overdosed on fentanyl, a number that has skyrocketed in recent years as the popularity of the drug increased.
The findings illustrate the risk that fentanyl has on people of all ages, with it accounting for almost two-thirds of all overdose deaths in the country.
Gaither says that the recent trends presented in her research shows the “pediatric opioid crisis is changing in ways that will make it harder to combat” moving forward.
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