Opioid Usage: Try Catching a Tiger by the Tail

Opioid overdoses have increased in recent years due to their increased use in the management of chronic pain and the increasing appearance of highly potent opioids on the illicit drug market. Worldwide, about 500,000 deaths are attributable to drug use.¹ And opioid usage doesn’t just affect the user. In the United States, at least one newborn with NOWS (neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome) is diagnosed every 24 minutes, says Rebecca G. Baker, Ph.D., director of the NIH HEAL Initiative.

What’s more, the addiction crisis is increasingly eroding health systems' finances, with the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) costing hospitals in the United States more than $95 billion a year. That's 7.86% of all hospital expenditures.

Synthetic drugs

As governments have tried to crack down on opioid prescriptions, people have turned to new ways to achieve the same high that have them hooked. Traffickers have managed to stretch their supply with synthetic drugs such as fentanyl.⁵

Fentanyl is a major contributor to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the U.S.⁶ Most recent cases of fentanyl-related overdose are linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is distributed through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive and more dangerous. The United States consumes the lion’s share of the global supply of fentanyl.

In the U.S., fentanyl deaths doubled in the two years from 2019 to 2021. However, in the same period, deaths among infants to one-year-olds quadrupled; deaths among one-to-four-year-olds more than tripled; and deaths among those from five to 14 years old nearly quadrupled.⁸

Newer, even more potent synthetics are on their way – xylazine and nitazine.

Nitazenes (benzimidazole opioids) are a class of synthetic opioids first developed in the 1950s as an analgesic medication.¹⁰ Undocumented nitazenes are now being found in blood and urine samples of individuals suspected of overdosing on synthetic opioids. First appearing in 2019 as a major factor in Canadian and European opioid overdoses, nitazenes are considered one of many emerging synthetic opioids known for their high abuse potential and risk of severe respiratory depression leading to death.

Canadian and European opioid overdoses, nitazenes are considered one of many emerging synthetic opioids known for their high abuse potential and risk of severe respiratory depression leading to death.

Explore SEKISUI Diagnostics' range of drugs of abuse assays.

References

1. Opioid overdose, World Health Organization
2. “Eat, Sleep, Console” reduces hospital stay and need for medication among opioid-exposed infants, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
3. How opioid misuse is costing health systems, Axios
4. Global Settlement Tracker, Christine Minhee
5. The next frontier of the drug crisis – xylazine, Washington Post
6. The Facts About Fentanyl, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
7. Distribution of fentanyl consumption globally from 2018 to 2021, by country, Statista
8. Fentanyl Deaths Among Children Rising Faster Than Any Other Age Group, More Than Tripled in Just Two Years, Families Against Fentanyl
9. The next frontier of the drug crisis – xylazine, Washington Post
10. Nitazenes, Carfentanyl, and Other Dangerous Opioids, FHE Health