NBC News (12/6, Edwards) reports, “The number of pregnant women and new mothers dying from drug overdoses grew dramatically as the pandemic took hold, reaching a record high in 2020,” according to a study. Investigators “looked at the death certificates of 7,642 people who died while pregnant or had just given birth from 2017 through 2020.” And “of those, 1,249 died of a drug overdose – usually from methamphetamine, cocaine or the synthetic opioid fentanyl,” according to the findings published in a research letter in JAMA.
MedPage Today (12/6, DePeau-Wilson) reports according to investigators, “from 2017 to 2020, overdose deaths in this population rose from 6.56 to 11.85 per 100,000 individuals, representing an 81% increase.” In “comparison, overdose deaths among non-pregnant females of reproductive age increased from 14.37 to 19.76 per 100,000, a relative increase of 38%.”
Related Links:
— “Drug deaths among pregnant women hit a record high “Erika Edwards, NBC News, December 6, 2022