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5 - Current Data and Worldwide Opioid Misuse Statistics

from Part II - Recognizing That a Problem Exists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2023

Ethan O. Bryson
Affiliation:
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
Christine E. Boxhorn
Affiliation:
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Summary

The amount of people worldwide who regularly used opioids in 2021 is staggering, and if something is not done to change the course of this epidemic, the numbers will continue to increase year over year, just as they have done over the last decade. Roughly 275 million people globally report having used drugs of any kind in the past year, an increase of almost 50 million people over the past ten years. While some of this increase was due to the 10% rise in global population over the same period, this alone cannot account for the entirety of the 22% rise in global drug use. Health-care systems around the world are being stretched beyond their capabilities to manage a population this large, and the number of people with opioid use disorder is projected to continue to increase in size over the next decade. The effects of the opioid epidemic on healthcare systems are particularly devastating in poorer and middle-income countries with less robust resources. Over the past decade the number of individuals with opioid use disorder has increased by almost 9 million, an increase of over 33%, and now affects 0.7% of the current global population.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Opioid Epidemic
Origins, Current State and Potential Solutions
, pp. 49 - 59
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

References and Further Reading

Degenhardt, L, Grebely, J, Stone, J, et al. (2019). Global patterns of opioid use and dependence: Harms to populations, interventions, and future action. Lancet 394: 15601579.Google Scholar
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Harm Reduction International (2018). Regional overview of the Middle East and North Africa. www.hri.global/files/2018/12/10/MiddleEastNorthAfrica-harm-reduction.pdfGoogle Scholar
Häuser, W, Buchser, E, Finn, DP, Dom, G, et al. (2021). Is Europe also facing an opioid crisis? A survey of European Pain Federation chapters. European Journal of Pain 25(8): 17601769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HispanTV (2018). EEUU apunta a América Latina con la epidemia de opioides [The US points to Latin America with the opiate epidemic]. www.hispantv.com/noticias/opinion/365152/eeuu-america-latina-epidemia-de-opioidesGoogle Scholar
Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission, Secretariat for Multidimensional Security, and the Organization of American States (2015). Report on drug use in the Americas. www.cicad.oas.org/oid/pubs/druguseamericas_eng_web.pdfGoogle Scholar
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WHO (2020). Report on people who inject drugs in the South-East Asia region. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/206320?locale-attribute=pt#Google Scholar
WHO (2021). Opioid overdose fact sheet. www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose (accessed December 5, 2022)Google Scholar

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