Overdose Deaths on the Rise in N.C.; CDC Steps In to Study

"The study focused on unintentional drug overdoses, and the number increased by 110 percent," said Kay Sanford, the study's primary investigator and a department epidemiologist.

In 2001, the accidental overdose rate rose to 7.73 per 100,000 people from 1999's rate of 5.54 per 100,000.

Most of North Carolina's unintentional drug-related deaths were from prescription narcotics, methadone in particular, Sanford said. Methadone is most common in substance abuse clinics, but the researchers found these clinics were not the major source of the drug, she said.

The study found that the average age of death from accidental overdose was 39 years old. "This suggests that they are not first-time users," Sanford said.

According to the study, the number of deaths in men is higher, but the number of deaths in women increased by 210 percent during the study's time frame.

Heavily populated counties such as Mecklenburg had the most deaths from accidental overdoses, but smaller rural counties such as Yancey had the highest mortality rates.

The reasons for the increase in accidental overdoses are unclear.

Sanford said the increases could be attributed to rising substance abuse or more drugs on the streets. "There are many things that have changed. ... This is such a complex issue."

The epidemic has gotten so severe that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken notice and is working with the department to examine the increase, she said.

But Sanford said officials have caught the alarming trend early enough to alter its course.

The department will set up a task force to deal with the state's overdose epidemic, said Carol Schriber, a public information officer at the health and human services department.

She said the department wants the task force to be in place by the end of this month and to meet over the next six months. The task force is charged with discerning reasons for the increase in deaths and will develop policies and procedures to decrease overdoses.

Dean Blackburn, coordinator of substance abuse services at UNC, said there is no indication that drug overdoses on campus have increased in recent years. "In general, we have not seen an increase in drug overdoses over the past 3 1/2 years," he said.

Blackburn said the stability of the overdose rate on campus might be a result of efforts to educate athletic teams, sororities, fraternities and other campus groups about drugs through brochures and presentations.

But he said it is often difficult to gauge the number of drug overdoses on campus.

Confidentiality policies of treatment facilities make finding campus overdose statistics hard, he said.

The health department task force will attempt to increase coordination between agencies to make it easier for officials to detect overdoses, Sanford said. She added the task force also will try to find ways for doctors to better determine who might be a user. "We need to work with physicians and have them trained better."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.