ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2026
Polydrug overdose mortality caused by synthetic opioids and stimulants: current sex- and age-specific trajectories in United States national data for 2018-2024.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Psychiatric Comorbidities in Substance Use Disorders: Sex-Based Differences in a National Real-World Clinical Sample.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Recent years have shown increases in overdose (OD) mortality caused by polydrug exposure to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and stimulants such as methamphetamine or cocaine. The goal of this study is to understand the recent trajectory in this polydrug OD mortality, especially as associated with decedents' sex and age. We carried out a cross-sectional analysis of national data for persons aged 15-74, from CDC WONDER for 2018-2024 (data for 2024 are considered provisional at the time of analysis). The outcome measure was OD mortality/100,000 population; annual data for 2018-2024 were analyzed with joinpoint regression, and the most recent years (2023-2024) were analyzed with ANOVA and multiple linear regression. Males had greater polydrug OD mortality caused by synthetic opioids and stimulants compared to females, across 2018-2024. Sex-specific joinpoint regressions detected increases in these polydrug OD after 2018, then decreases from 2023 in males, and from 2022 in females. For these polydrug OD, the mean annual percent change (APC) in 2024 versus 2023 was -36% and -31% in males and females, respectively. For synthetic opioids without stimulants, OD trends in 2024 versus 2023 were similar to those for polydrug OD (-42% and -39% APC in males and females, respectively). However, OD for stimulants without synthetic opioids showed relatively smaller changes (-3% and -2% APC in males and females, respectively). Stratification into 10-year age groups for polydrug OD revealed that mortality peaked at age 35-44 and then declined at older ages. Recent decreases in polydrug OD mortality were observed across age groups, with joinpoints detected in 2022 or 2023. These findings indicate that after increases from 2018 onward, polydrug OD mortality caused by synthetic opioids and stimulants exhibited substantial decreases in both males and females in the most recent data for 2024, across a broad age range. Because relatively smaller changes were observed in OD mortality caused by stimulants without synthetic opioids in this time period, the decreases in polydrug OD mortality are more likely to be caused by changes in exposure, prevention or intervention strategies focused on opioids rather than on stimulants. While this polydrug OD mortality has decreased in 2024, it remains at concerning levels.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.