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. 2021 Sep 16;13(9):e18012. doi: 10.7759/cureus.18012

Table 1. Prescription opioids overdose deaths in US (2000-2016), including and excluding synthetic opioids.

Deaths are classified according to the ICD-10. Approximately 1/5 of drug poisoning deaths lack information on the specific drugs involved.

Data sourced from (with permission): Seth et al. [52]

  Conservative definition for prescription opioids: natural and semisynthetic opioids and methadone Traditional definition for prescription opioids: natural and semisynthetic opioids and methadone, and other synthetic opioids Synthetic opioids other than methadone
Year Number Overdose deaths per 100,000 Number Overdose deaths per 100,000 Number Overdose deaths per 100,000
2000 3785 1.3 4400 1.5 782 0.3
2001 4770 1.7 5528 1.9 957 0.3
2002 6483 2.3 7456 2.6 1295 0.4
2003 7461 2.6 8517 2.9 1400 0.5
2004 8577 2.9 9857 3.4 1664 0.6
2005 9612 3.2 10928 3.7 1742 0.6
2006 11589 3,9 13723 4.6 2707 0.9
2007 12796 4.2 14408 4.8 2213 0.7
2008 13149 4.3 14800 4.8 2306 0.8
2009 13523 4.4 15597 5.0 2946 1.0
2010 14583 4.7 16651 5.4 3007 1.0
2011 15140 4.9 16917 5.4 2666 0.8
2012 14240 4.5 16007 5.1 2628 0.8
2013 14145 4.4 16235 5.1 3105 1.0
2014 14838 4.6 18893 5.9 5544 1.8
2015 15281 4.7 22598 7.0 9580 3.1
2016 17087 5.2 32445 10.2 19413 6.2