Tens of millions of people report misuse of prescription pain medicine. There were 46,802 opioid overdose fatalities in 2018 due to either a prescription or illegal opioid, accounting for two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths that year. In the last two months, at least 30 states have reported increases in opioid fatalities since the start of the pandemic. The New York Times has referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as a “national relapse trigger.”
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has developed a fact sheet on COVID-19’s impact on the opioid crisis. The fact sheet identifies the link between the COVID-19 pandemic and an increased risk of opioid misuse, and provides tips to manage stressors caused by the pandemic.
