MADISON, Wis. — UW Health officials say there has been a spike in opioid overdoses and deaths over the past year which they link to the COVID-19 disease.
Since the pandemic reached the state of Wisconsin in early February of last year, weekly rates of hospital visits for opioid overdoses increased by as much as 45% compared to 2019.
According to Mike Repplinger, the increase in overdoses cannot be directly linked to COVID-19 but there are many factors associated with COVID that are known risk factors for drug usage.
“Social isolation, being away from family and friends, being restricted as far as your availability to access care, homelessness, joblessness,” Repplinger said. “All of these things cause increase usage which is exactly what we saw.”
Various communities have been impacted, along with new drug users and previous users. One of the reasons why doctors are seeing more overdoses is because of new synthetic drugs that require a smaller dose to overdose.
“The most important take-home is just to acknowledge the fact that there is an ongoing epidemic that will not go away when COVID goes away and we need to raise awareness and encourage seeking care,” Repplinger said.
For more information and help on drug use, visit UW Health’s addiction service page.
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