Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes

This report presents information on four types of outcomes from the four different data sources:

1. Opioid prescribing, 2006-2016, from QuintilesIMS Health®
2. Drug use, misuse, and substance use disorder, 2014-2015, from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a product of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
3. Nonfatal overdose hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits, 2014, from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), a product of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
4. Drug overdose mortality, 1999-2015, from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) Mortality Component, maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC

Conclusions

The data from these four sources suggest the following conclusions:

1. Through 2015, drug overdose remained a large and growing public health crisis in the United States.
2. Prescription opioid pain relievers were formerly driving the crisis, but by 2015 they shared equal measure with heroin, synthetic opioids other than methadone (mostly illicit fentanyl), and—increasingly—cocaine and methamphetamines.
3. The leveling off and declines in opioid prescribing rates since 2012 and high-dose prescribing rates since 2009 suggest that healthcare providers have responded, becoming more cautious in their opioid prescribing practices.
4. Additional measures are now urgently needed to address a diverse and evolving array of drug types.

Suggested citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes — United States, 2017. Surveillance Special Report 1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Published August 31, 2017.