Youth opioid overdoses resulting in an encounter with emergency medical services (EMS) spiked significantly during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These encounters have now largely stabilized, though they remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic rates, according to a new study published in JAMA Network.
“Prehospital encounters for youth opioid overdoses were increasing prior to the pandemic, increased with the onset, and then stabilized, remaining higher than pre-pandemic levels,” the study’s authors wrote. “Although overall patterns were largely driven by those aged 18 through 24 years, adolescents aged 12 through 17 years were the only subgroup with an increasing number of encounters both before and during the pandemic.”
Researchers analyzed 91,700 youth opioid overdose encounters with EMS for people under 24 from 2018 to 2022 to determine differences between the time before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the pandemic. The study characterized April 2020 to December 2022 as the time during the pandemic and January 2018 to February 2020 as the period before the pandemic.
Youth opioid overdoses involving an EMS encounter significantly increased during the pre-pandemic period, jumping by almost 30% each month. Researchers attributed these jumps to increases in overdoses among youth aged 18 to 24.
Youth aged 18 to 24 drove an immediate increase in overdoses during the beginning of the pandemic as well, but encounters lowered as the pandemic progressed.
“The pandemic interruption was associated with an immediate and significant increase in overdose encounters, followed by a change in trend from significantly increasing to not significantly changing, with monthly encounters generally remaining above pre-pandemic levels,” researchers wrote.
Over 1,800 encounters occurred in April 2020 and 1,500 occurred in December 2022, demonstrating a significant drop during the course of the pandemic.
The number of youth overdose-related EMS encounters in December is still relatively high compared to pre-pandemic statistics, however. Researchers identified 810 encounters in January 2018 and 1,538 in February 2020.
Characteristics and Trends of Prehospital Encounters for Opioid Overdoses Among US Youth, 2018-2022 Characteristics and Trends of Prehospital Encounters for Opioid Overdoses Among US Youth, 2018-2022Teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 were the only age group for which opioid overdose EMS encounters significantly increased both before the pandemic, during which time encounters increased by 2.8 per month, and during the pandemic, during which time encounters increased by 1.6 per month.
The study’s results closely mirror recent increases in total drug overdose deaths, researchers wrote. Spikes in youth opioid overdose deaths have previously been associated with fentanyl, with at least 75% of youth overdoses deaths involving the drug.
Certain demographics experienced opioid overdoses that led to an EMS encounter more commonly than others, according to the study. Almost 87% of EMS encounters within this data set involved people aged 18 to 24, and encounters were more common among males, with 65% of encounters among this group.
Most EMS encounters took place at private residences, and EMS administered at least one dose of naloxone at 66% of encounters.
