Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T05:23:12.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Current Data and Worldwide Opioid Misuse Statistics

from Part II - Recognizing That a Problem Exists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2023

Ethan O. Bryson
Affiliation:
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
Christine E. Boxhorn
Affiliation:
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Get access

Summary

The amount of people worldwide who regularly used opioids in 2021 is staggering, and if something is not done to change the course of this epidemic, the numbers will continue to increase year over year, just as they have done over the last decade. Roughly 275 million people globally report having used drugs of any kind in the past year, an increase of almost 50 million people over the past ten years. While some of this increase was due to the 10% rise in global population over the same period, this alone cannot account for the entirety of the 22% rise in global drug use. Health-care systems around the world are being stretched beyond their capabilities to manage a population this large, and the number of people with opioid use disorder is projected to continue to increase in size over the next decade. The effects of the opioid epidemic on healthcare systems are particularly devastating in poorer and middle-income countries with less robust resources. Over the past decade the number of individuals with opioid use disorder has increased by almost 9 million, an increase of over 33%, and now affects 0.7% of the current global population.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Opioid Epidemic
Origins, Current State and Potential Solutions
, pp. 49 - 59
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Further Reading

Degenhardt, L, Grebely, J, Stone, J, et al. (2019). Global patterns of opioid use and dependence: Harms to populations, interventions, and future action. Lancet 394: 15601579.Google Scholar
Family Health International (2002). National Assessment of Situation and Responses to Opioid/Opiate Use in Bangladesh. What Will Happen to Us? Country Highlights and Recommendations. Dhaka: CARE.Google Scholar
Harm Reduction International (2018). Regional overview of the Middle East and North Africa. www.hri.global/files/2018/12/10/MiddleEastNorthAfrica-harm-reduction.pdfGoogle Scholar
Häuser, W, Buchser, E, Finn, DP, Dom, G, et al. (2021). Is Europe also facing an opioid crisis? A survey of European Pain Federation chapters. European Journal of Pain 25(8): 17601769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HispanTV (2018). EEUU apunta a América Latina con la epidemia de opioides [The US points to Latin America with the opiate epidemic]. www.hispantv.com/noticias/opinion/365152/eeuu-america-latina-epidemia-de-opioidesGoogle Scholar
Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission, Secretariat for Multidimensional Security, and the Organization of American States (2015). Report on drug use in the Americas. www.cicad.oas.org/oid/pubs/druguseamericas_eng_web.pdfGoogle Scholar
Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (2019). Report on drug use in the Americas 2019. http://www.cicad.oas.org/main/pubs/Report%20on%20Drug%20Use%20in%20the%20Americas%202019.pdfGoogle Scholar
Kurth, AE, Cherutich, P, Conover, R, Chhun, N, Bruce, RD, Lambdin, BH (2018). The opioid epidemic in Africa and its impact. Current Addiction Reports 5(4): 428453.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewer, D, Brothers, TD, Van Hest, N, et al. (2022). Causes of death among people who used illicit opioids in England, 2001–18: A matched cohort study. Lancet Public Health 7: e126e135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (2021). The perfect storm: COVID-19’s impact on addiction over the past year. https://knockoutday.drugfreenj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/KOOAD_3_18_webinar.pdfGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, M (2021). Opioids: Do you think there’s a problem? Presentation on Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO). https://knockoutday.drugfreenj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/kooad_5_20_rosenberg.pdfGoogle Scholar
UNDOC (2004). The extent, pattern and trends of drug abuse in India. www.unodc.org/pdf/india/presentations/india_national_survey_2004.pdfGoogle Scholar
UNODC (2016). Compendium of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice. www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/compendium/English_book.pdfGoogle Scholar
UNDOC (2021). World Drug Report 2021. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. www.unodc.org/res/wdr2021/field/WDR21_Booklet_1.pdfGoogle Scholar
WHO (2010). ATLAS on substance use (2010): Resources for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44455/9789241500616_eng.pdf?sequence=1Google Scholar
WHO (2020). Report on people who inject drugs in the South-East Asia region. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/206320?locale-attribute=pt#Google Scholar
WHO (2021). Opioid overdose fact sheet. www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose (accessed December 5, 2022)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×