CDC sees link between overdoses, other mental health disorders

Treating and screening for non-substance-related mental health disorders could help drive down overdoses, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

The study found that of the 63,424 people who died from drug overdoses across 43 states and Washington, D.C. in 2022, 22% had a separate mental health disorder. Analyzing data from the CDC’s State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System, the researchers found that the most common disorders were depression, anxiety and bipolar.

The authors noted the rates of mental health disorders are likely underestimated.

Amanda Dinwiddie, a health scientist in the division of overdose prevention at the CDC and the lead author of the study, said in an interview Thursday she hopes public health professionals will use the information gleaned in the study to better screen for and treat mental health disorders.

“They can build upon efforts to identify and treat patients who have substance use disorders and other mental health disorders by integrating screening and treatment, for example, by incorporating evidence-based mental health screening into non-fatal overdose encounters, like in emergency departments,” she said.

She said public health professionals can also amp up harm reduction services, like naloxone distribution to reverse opioid overdose. The FDA in 2023 approved the first over-the-counter naloxone products. They are now available in all 50 states.

Dinwiddie said a quarter of people with non-substance-related mental health disorders who died had encountered at least one opportunity for intervention, like during existing substance use treatment or during an emergency department visit.

“We included any emergency department or urgent care visit within a month of death,” she said. “It could be overdose related or non-overdose related, release from an institutional setting, like a prison or a jail, undergoing current treatment for substance use disorder, or they had a previous non-fatal overdose. Those are just touch points where intervention could have occurred.”

About 80% of the overdose deaths involved opioids, primarily illegally manufactured fentanyl, the data showed.

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