Heroin-Induced Overdose Deaths in New York City Have Increased, but Deaths from Methadone Overdose Have Not

NEW YORK CITY, July 2???Despite recent reports that methadone-induced overdose deaths are increasing in some U.S. and European locations, this has not been true in New York, according to a new study by The New York Academy of Medicine in the July issue of Addiction.

In New York City between 1990 and 1998, researchers found that the number of overdose deaths attributed to methadone stayed relatively constant. In stark contrast, overdose deaths attributed to heroin???the drug that methadone is prescribed to treat???rose substantially during that time.

Methadone-induced deaths are not increasing in New York.

Methadone is a drug long valued for reducing illness and death stemming from heroin addiction. It is a long-acting pain killer that allows addicts to pull away from their debilitating heroin addiction, get over withdrawal symptoms and lead productive lives. But recent reports have suggested that overdose deaths attributable to methadone are on the rise, likely because people are abusing it and taking it in excessive quantities to get high. The federal Drug Abuse Warning Network reported that in 2001, 10,725 people turned up in emergency rooms after having abused methadone ??? nearly double the number of visits as in 1999. Then a February 2003 article in The New York Times portrayed the situation as quite grim: methadone-related deaths in Florida jumped from 209 in 2000 to 357 in 2001, the article stated, and in Maine, methadone was leading cause of overdose deaths between 1997 and 2002.

The new Academy findings reveal that methadone-induced deaths have been a relatively small concern in New York City during the 1990s compared to other locations, said Sandro Galea, M.D., Dr. P.H., a co-author of the study and Associate Director of the Academy???s Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies.

???Methadone has an important role to play in treatment of opiate addictions and in pain management,??? said Galea, a medical epidemiologist. ???Our data does not show that methadone-related overdose death was a significant cause for concern in New York City during the 1990s.???

Researchers examined all data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City regarding accidental drug overdose deaths between 1990-98 among 15- to 64-year-olds. Out of the 7,451 accidental overdose deaths in that time, 76 percent of the deceased were male, 33 percent white, 36 percent black, and 30 percent Hispanic. More than 70 percent were between the ages of 25 and 44. Most of the deaths occurred in Manhattan (33 percent), followed by Brooklyn (26 percent), the Bronx (23 percent), Queens (15 percent) and Staten Island (2 percent).

The number of methadone-induced overdose deaths remained relatively stable in New York City during that time, peaking at 145 deaths in 1991. There were 95 deaths in 1998, the final year of the study. Overdose deaths attributed to heroin rose from 287 in 1990 and peaked at 676 in 1993. In 1998, 483 heroin-induced overdose deaths occurred.

Researchers were able to paint a profile of those at greatest risk of dying from methadone and heroin overdoses. Most likely to die from methadone overdose were those 35 and older, while heroin overdose deaths most commonly occurred among males, and marijuana or alcohol users.

The study was co-authored by several Academy researchers from the Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies (CUES): lead author Whitney K. Bryant, who is also with the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University???s Mailman School of Public Health, Melissa Tracy, Tinka Markham Piper, M.P.H., M.S.W., and CUES Director David Vlahov, Ph.D. Kenneth J. Tardiff of the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University also co-authored the report.

The New York Academy of Medicine is a non-profit institution founded in 1847 that is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on urban populations, especially the disadvantaged. Visit the Academy online at www.nyam.org.

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Posted on July 2, 2004

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