The crisis of fentanyl and other opioids is far from over in the U.S., and a new study stresses that point, finding that the illicit use of these substances is much more prevalent than prior studies suggest. Published today in JAMA Health Forum, the research reveals that 7.5 percent of adults in the U.S. had used illicitly manufactured fentanyl at some point between June 2023 and June 2024 — a percentage that is more than 20 times higher than past reported rates.
According to the study authors, the results suggests that new methods must be adopted to study the severity of the ongoing opioid crisis.
Read More: The Opioid Crisis Is Not Over
Though illicit fentanyl is increasingly tied to fatal overdoses in the U.S., the prevalence of its use is understudied. In fact, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health ...
