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Exponential Increase in Methamphetamine-Involved Deaths Driven by Opioid Co-Use
The rate of methamphetamine-involved deaths in the United States increased 50-fold between 1999 and 2021, according to researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Polysubstance use involving methamphetamine and either heroin or fentanyl played a significant role in the increase.
Findings from the study were published in the American Journal of Public Health.
In 1999, 608 deaths were attributed to methamphetamine use, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). By 2021, the number of methamphetamine-involved deaths increased to 52,397, with 61.2% of the methamphetamine-involved deaths in 2021 also involving either heroin or fentanyl.
Although the data reviewed for the study dated back to 1999, the increase in methamphetamine-involved deaths mostly began in 2010, lead researcher Rachel Hoopsick, a professor of kinesiology and community health, told the Illinois News Bureau, the university’s news service.
“We knew from behavioral studies that the use of stimulants, in general, as well as the use of stimulants with opioids has been increasing over the past decade or two,” Hoopsick said. “But we didn’t know how deadly it was becoming. I think what is different now versus 10 years ago is we have a much more toxic unregulated drug supply here in the US.”
After participating in a community-based research project at the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, Hoopsick said she was motivated to conduct the study to better understand the experiences, needs, and preferences of individuals who inject drugs. Hoopsick said she was surprised to learn as many syringe service program participants were injecting methamphetamine as those injecting opioids and that many were using both.
“That got me thinking that the increase in methamphetamine mortality might be driven by the co-use of meth with illicitly manufactured fentanyl, in particular, which we’ve seen in the opioid overdose crisis is driving a lot of the deaths in the United States,” Hoopsick said.
The researchers who conducted the study concluded that the exponential increase in methamphetamine-involved deaths over the past decade, as well as the frequent co-involvement of heroin or fentanyl observed, indicate that while current harm reduction efforts focus mostly on opioid use, wider-ranging interventions that account for stimulants and polysubstance use are needed.
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