The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is reporting the first significant year-over-year decrease in the number of overdose deaths since 2015.
But that doesn’t mean the opioid epidemic is over, DHSS officials said in a statement.
A total of 1,948 overdose deaths was reported in 2023, down from Missouri’s all-time high of 2,180 deaths in 2022. More than 73% of those deaths were attributed to opioids, meaning one out of 47 deaths statewide were attributed to an opioid-involved overdose, the department said in a statement.
According to DHSS, while prescription opioids and heroin once drove the epidemic, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have taken over as the primary substance causing death.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that’s 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It’s available in prescription form for pain relief, but fentanyl is also made illegally, said DHSS officials. The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that 5 out of every 10 pills they seize contains a lethal dose of fentanyl.
One effort to mitigate the problem – increasing the availability of the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone – is believed to be having an impact in lowering the number of deaths.
In 2017, DHSS issued a statewide standing order, which greatly increased availability of the rescue medication by not requiring a prescription at pharmacies and local public health agencies, according to a press release. Since its installment, nearly 30% of all naloxone prescriptions through MO HealthNet stemmed from the DHSS standing order, it said. Medicaid clients have been provided 233,035 naloxone doses since 2017, with 68,424 doses being sought under the DHSS standing order, according to the department.
But health officials want the public to know that the opioid epidemic continues to impact families, communities and health care systems.
“The improvements we are seeing are evidence-based, promising and indicative of successful statewide interdisciplinary comprehensive efforts," said DHSS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Heidi Miller in the press release. "But we can’t take our foot off the pedal toward assertively preventing and addressing substance use disorder and related overdose deaths."
Anyone can obtain naloxone, usually for free, from local public health agencies and clinics as well as pharmacies. Find out where to get the drug at NOMoDeaths.org.
Patients can ask their current health care provider or find affordable accessible treatment sites via NOMoDeaths.org/get-treatment.
But getting patients to treatment continues to be a challenge, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2023, an estimated 54.2 million Americans aged 12 or older needed substance use disorder treatment in the past year, but only 12.8 million people with a substance use disorder in the past year received treatment, the CDC said.
Prevention is key, according to the CDC.
People can help reduce the risk of counterfeit pill overdose by:
- Only taking pills prescribed to them
- Being aware that pills bought illegally might contain highly potent drugs
- Using fentanyl test strips (FTS), small strips of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in all different kinds of drugs (cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, etc.) and drug forms (pills, powder, and injectables)
