JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Opioid drug overdoses could have killed more Americans than first projected, according to a report from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.
According to the report, nationwide, the opioid death rate was 24 percent higher than previously estimated.
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The study also found that the increase in opioid death rates were considerably understated in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey and Arizona, but dramatically overestimated in South Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Connecticut, Florida and Kentucky.
By region, opioid death rates were concentrated in the Mountain States, Rust Belt, Industrial North, New England and much of the South. Heroin deaths were particularly high in the Northeast and Rust Belt, but lower in the South and Mountain States.
Researchers also found that the deaths were initially inaccurately reported. That’s because sometimes up to 25 percent of death certificates didn’t list the drug responsible for killing the person.