Opioid deaths on rise in Ontario, with 2 people a day dying of overdoses: study

“What we’ve seen is that fentanyl, hydromorphone and even heroin involvement in opioid-related deaths really started to rise at that point in time,” said Gomes.

“That’s a bit concerning because it means that simply changing access or the formulation of one type of opioid isn’t actually leading to the ultimate goal of reducing the rate of opioid-related deaths in the province,” she said. “It’s simply shifting people between the types of opioids like fentanyl and heroin.”

Fentanyl’s contribution to opioid-related deaths soared by 548 per cent between 2006 and 2015, and it is now the most common cause of lethal overdoses among this class of powerful painkillers. Fentanyl can be obtained in both prescribed patches and illicitly manufactured pills, but the latter have only been around for the last couple of years.

“What we don’t know in Ontario is the degree to which the illicit form of fentanyl is really driving the increases we’re seeing, compared to fentanyl patches that are being prescribed by physicians and then diverted onto the street,” said Gomes, adding that B.C. has witnessed “an enormous rise” in illicit fentanyl deaths in the last two years.

Hydromorphone is the second most commonly identified drug in Ontario’s rash of overdose deaths — with its involvement climbing by 232 per cent between 2006 and 2015 —while heroin’s connection to opioid-related fatalities jumped by 975 per cent, despite small numbers overall.

The report, based on 1991-2015 data obtained from the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario, shows that opioid-related deaths often involved other drugs that could have contributed. Post-mortem toxicology identified benzodiazepine in more than half of those who died and cocaine in almost one-third.

“The presence of these other drugs may be indicative of the concerning practice of combining cocaine with illicitly produced fentanyl, which is relatively inexpensive, to extend the drug supply,” said Gomes.

“And we’re seeing a fair amount of stories about people using cocaine who end up dying of a fentanyl overdose because they don’t realize they’re taking an opioid and may never have been exposed to an opioid before,” she said. “They may have simply been cocaine users.”

The report also shows that more than 80 per cent of all opioid-related deaths in 2015 were accidental, while the remainder were suicides. A break-down of accidental deaths by age showed that almost 60 per cent occurred among youth and younger adults, aged 15 to 44, and more often among males.

Almost 80 per cent of opioid-related suicides occurred among older adults, aged 45 years and older, with women outnumbering men.

The researchers said opioid-related deaths occur among both sexes, all ages and all income brackets. However, on average, individuals who died of an opioid-related cause in 2015 were men, middle-aged and living in lower-income, urban settings.

Opioid-related deaths in Ontario now exceed the number of those killed in motor vehicle accidents, said Gomes, noting that in 2014, there were 676 fatal overdoses in the province compared to 481 road fatalities.

“It does highlight how pervasive this issue is becoming in society,” she said. “So we now need to figure out how we can avoid people dying from opioid-related causes.”

Gomes said it will need a multi-pronged approach, including altering doctors’ prescribing patterns to prevent people becoming addicted to the drugs, while helping those who are already dependent on the painkillers to pare down their medicinal use without driving them toward more dangerous forms of illicit opioids.

She said other public health measures need to include increased addiction treatment programs, harm-reduction strategies such as safe-injection sites, and more widespread access to the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, “so we can avoid some of the fatal consequences of these drugs.”

– Follow @SherylUbelacker on Twitter.

Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Opioid deaths on rise in Ontario, with 2 people a day dying of overdoses: study

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