U.S. Overdose Deaths Drop Significantly

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated their Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts to include new data, which show a 10.6% drop in overdose deaths from April 2023 (112,470 deaths) to April 2024 (101,168 deaths) in the United States. It is the first time that overdose deaths have declined since they started rapidly accelerating in 2020. While this drop is significant, especially for some states, such as Ohio, which saw a 31% decline in overdose deaths), the cause of the decrease is not yet known. More research is underway to investigate the reason for the new trend. An early KFF analysis examined the decline by how trends vary by age, race, gender, and state.

The AHRQ Academy will share more information as it becomes known. Sign up for the Academy Newsletter to remain up to date on the latest research, news, and resources on Behavioral Health Integration.