St. Vincent Charity Medical Center provides drug and alcohol impact statistics

Friday, January 27, 2017

Tags: St. Vincent Charity Medical Center , health care

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As part of National Drug and Alcohol Facts week, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center provided statistics about the impact of drug and alcohol addiction in the recent issue of its monthly online radiant newsletter. As seen in radiant:

• 23.1 million Americans have an alcohol or drug addiction.
• 17.9 million in the U.S. have alcohol dependence or abuse problems.
• Excessive alcohol consumption contributes to 75,000 American deaths every year.
• Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., with 55,403 lethal drug overdoses in 2015.
• More than 660 died in Cuyahoga County in 2016 due to drug overdose, including 500 from heroin or opioids.  This is more than double the number in 2015.
• Ohio places 8th out of the 50 states for the highest drug-induced deaths.
• Only 9 percent of Americans in need of treatment for substance abuse are receiving it, leaving 20.5 million still in need.
• 90 percent of those with an addiction began drinking, smoking or using illicit drugs before the age of 18.
• Nearly half of those who use heroin reportedly started abusing prescription pain killers before they went to heroin.
• The sale of painkillers in the U.S. has increased by more than 300 percent since 1999.
• 50 percent of those abusing prescribed drugs got them from a friend or relative.
• Over 50 percent of Ohio’s drug treatment admissions for opioids are female, and more than 65 percent are between 18 and 34.
• The estimated cost of drug abuse exceeds $190 billion, including:
• $130 billion in lost productivity
• $20 billion in health care costs
• $40 billion in legal costs, including efforts to stem the flow of drugs

It is estimated 80 percent of new hepatitis C infections occur among those who use drugs intravenously, such as heroin.

St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is a ministry of the Sisters of Charity Health System.