Giving Compass' Take:

• Recent research shows that incomplete death reports reveal there maybe 28 percent more opioid-related deaths than initially reported. 

• How do these new numbers impact how local and federal governments handle the opioid crisis? 

• Read about the role of philanthropy in addressing the opioids. 

The discrepancy is more pronounced in several states, including Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Indiana, where the estimated number of deaths more than doubles—obscuring the scope of the opioid crisis and potentially affecting programs and funding intended to confront the epidemic, researchers say.

“A substantial share of fatal drug overdoses is missing information on specific drug involvement, leading to under-reporting of opioid-related death rates and a misrepresentation of the extent of the opioid crisis,” says Elaine Hill, an economist and assistant professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center public health sciences department and senior author of the study in Addiction.

“The corrected estimates of opioid-related deaths in this study are not trivial and show that the human toll has been substantially higher than reported, by several thousand lives taken each year.”

As a part of her research, Hill was attempting to determine whether the shale boom improved or exacerbated the opioid crisis. However, as they started collecting data, the researchers discovered that close to 22% of all drug-related overdoses were unclassified, meaning the drugs involved in the cause of death were not indicated.

The new estimates of actual opioid-related deaths show a pronounced increase in states like Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Indiana. In fact, in each of these states, the number of opioid-related deaths increased by more than 100%.

“Understanding the true extent and geography of the opioid crisis is a critical factor in the national response to the epidemic and the allocation of federal and state resources to prevent overdoses, treat opioid use disorders, regulate the prescription of opioid medications, and curb the illegal trafficking of drugs.”

Read the full article about opioid-related deaths by Mark Michaud at Futurity.