Overdose deaths involving psychostimulants with abuse potential, excluding cocaine: State-level differences and the role of opioids.

BACKGROUND

Over the course of the past decade, psychostimulants such as methamphetamines have been increasingly reported in overdose deaths in the United States (US). Methamphetamine use has recently risen among individuals who use opioids, yet it is unclear what role the opioid crisis has played in the increase in psychostimulant-involved overdose mortality in states across the US.

METHODS

Mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used to examine recent state-level changes in overdose deaths involving psychostimulants with abuse potential, excluding cocaine. Psychostimulant-involved overdose mortality rates, changes in rates, and opioid co-involvement were compared by state and plotted on choropleth maps. Ordinary least squares regression analyses were used to test the associations between a state's psychostimulant-involved overdose mortality rate change and several state-level indicators related to the opioid crisis.

RESULTS

From 2015/2016-2017/2018, significant increases in psychostimulant-involved overdose mortality rates were observed in 42 of 47 states with data available. Each of the three state-level indicators examined in the study (opioid prescribing rate in 2012, past-year prevalence of opioid use disorder from 2015-2018, and increase in drug overdose mortality during the earliest stages of the opioid crisis from 1999-2012) was positively associated with the absolute rate change in psychostimulant-involved overdose mortality from 2015/2016-2017/2018.

CONCLUSIONS

Although deaths involving methamphetamine have historically been primarily concentrated in the western US, results of the study reflect the alarming increase in psychostimulant-involved overdose mortality across the nation, especially in some of the states heavily impacted by the opioid crisis.