Responding to the Youth Fentanyl Crisis: Practical Guidance for Child Psychiatrists

Christopher J Hammond; Jesse D Hinckley

doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2024.03.003

Responding to the Youth Fentanyl Crisis: Practical Guidance for Child Psychiatrists

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2024 Mar 8:S0890-8567(24)00121-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.03.003. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Christopher J Hammond¹, Jesse D Hinckley²

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Hinkley is with the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado. Electronic address: chammo20@jhmi.edu.
² Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Hinkley is with the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado.

PMID: 38461894
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.03.003

Abstract

Deaths due to unintentional opioid overdose among youth living in the United States have risen at an extraordinary rate over the past 4 years.¹ After remaining stable over the preceding decade, the rate of drug overdose deaths increased more than 2.3-fold from 2019 to 2021 to a record high of 5.49 deaths per 100,000 youth.¹ This rise in fatal overdoses is largely due to increased prevalence of illicitly manufactured fentanyl in the drug supply. In 2021, fentanyl was identified in 77.1% of overdose deaths among US adolescents, a 23.5-fold increase from 2010, compared to 13.3% for benzodiazepines, 5.8% for prescription opioids, and 2.3% for heroin.¹ Compared to other phases of the opioid crisis, fentanyl-related overdoses are characterized by extraordinarily broad geographic and sociodemographic reach.

Publication types

Editorial