From NPR, by Marisa Penaloza
Black Opioid Deaths Increase Faster Than Whites, Spurring Calls For Treatment Equity
A study published Thursday reveals a growing racial disparity in opioid overdose death rates. Deaths among African Americans are growing faster than among whites across the country. The study authors call for an “antiracist public health approach” to address the crisis in Black communities.
The study, conducted in partnership with the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, analyzed overdose data and death certificates from four states: Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts and New York. It found that the rate of opioid deaths among Black people increased by 38% from 2018 to 2019, while rates for other racial and ethnic groups did not rise.
The study used data collected before the coronavirus pandemic began; preliminary data show that overall drug overdoses rose in 2020.
In the earlier waves of the opioid crisis, African Americans had lower rates of overdose deaths than whites, according to another study published last year in the journal Addiction, and Black rates stayed level from 1999 through 2012. However by 2013, white rates began to level off while Black rates began increasing.
The new study from NIDA confirms the trend.
“We’re seeing the shift in the demographics,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA.
Dr. Edwin Chapman, an internal medicine and addiction medicine specialist who serves the African American community in Washington, D.C., says the study is helpful because it shows the serious impact of opioid addiction on Black Americans.
“It points out the fact that we have to do something different, a more intensive intervention in the African-American community,” he says.
“We’re seeing the shift in the demographics,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA.
Dr. Edwin Chapman, an internal medicine and addiction medicine specialist who serves the African American community in Washington, D.C., says the study is helpful because it shows the serious impact of opioid addiction on Black Americans.
“It points out the fact that we have to do something different, a more intensive intervention in the African-American community,” he says.