TABLE 1—

Prescription Opioid Overdose Deaths, Inclusive and Exclusive of Synthetic Opioids: United States, 1999–2016

Year	Conservative Definition for Prescription Opioids: Natural and Semisynthetic Opioids and Methadone^a		Traditional Definition for Prescription Opioids: Natural and Semisynthetic Opioids, Methadone, and Other Synthetic Opioids^a		Synthetic Opioids, Other Than Methadone^a
Year	No.	Overdose Deaths^b per 100 000^c	No.	Overdose Deaths^b per 100 000^c	No.	Overdose Deaths^b per 100 000^c
1999	3 442	1.2	4 030	1.4	730	0.3
2000	3 785	1.3	4 400	1.5	782	0.3
2001	4 770	1.7	5 528	1.9	957	0.3
2002	6 483	2.3	7 456	2.6	1 295	0.4
2003	7 461	2.6	8 517	2.9	1 400	0.5
2004	8 577	2.9	9 857	3.4	1 664	0.6
2005	9 612	3.2	10 928	3.7	1 742	0.6
2006	11 589	3.9	13 723	4.6	2 707	0.9
2007	12 796	4.2	14 408	4.8	2 213	0.7
2008	13 149	4.3	14 800	4.8	2 306	0.8
2009	13 523	4.4	15 597	5.0	2 946	1.0
2010	14 583	4.7	16 651	5.4	3 007	1.0
2011	15 140	4.9	16 917	5.4	2 666	0.8
2012	14 240	4.5	16 007	5.1	2 628	0.8
2013	14 145	4.4	16 235	5.1	3 105	1.0
2014	14 838	4.6	18 893	5.9	5 544	1.8
2015	15 281	4.7	22 598	7.0	9 580	3.1
2016	17 087	5.2	32 445	10.2	19 413	6.2

Note. Deaths are classified according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. Drug overdose deaths are identified with underlying cause-of-death codes X40–X44, X60–X64, X85, and Y10–Y14. The following multiple cause-of-death codes were used to identify specific drug types: T40.2 for natural and semisynthetic opioid analgesics, T40.3 for methadone, and T40.4 for synthetic opioid analgesics other than methadone. Approximately one fifth of drug poisoning deaths lack information on the specific drugs involved. Additional information available at: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/analysis.html.

Source. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC WONDER: Mortality. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2017. Available at: https://wonder.cdc.gov. Accessed December 22, 2017.

^{^a}

Natural opioids include morphine and codeine, and semisynthetic opioids include drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxymorphone. Methadone is a synthetic opioid. Synthetic opioids, other than methadone, include drugs such as tramadol and fentanyl.

^{^b}

Deaths may involve one or more drugs.

^{^c}

Age-adjusted rate, calculated with the direct method and the 2000 standard population.