Deaths Related to Prescription Drug Overdoses Increase Slightly in 2012

Decatur, GA  – An analysis of autopsies performed by the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office in 152 counties, which drug overdose was the cause of death or a significant contributing factor in the death, found there was a 3% increase in the number of prescription overdose deaths in 2012 compared to 2011.　

Note: These statistics do NOT include autopsies performed by medical examiners in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, or Rockdale Counties.

Of the 686 drug overdose deaths in 2012, there were 520 deaths which involved prescription drugs only.　 The analysis also showed that 94 drug overdose deaths in 2012 involved only illicit drugs and 72 deaths were attributed to a combination of both prescription and illicit drugs.

In 2012, 520 of the 686 overdose deaths were attributed to prescription drugs only.

For overdose drug deaths in 2012, the drugs found through toxicology tests in the highest numbers were as follows:

These are the top 11 of the 82 different drugs found in toxicology tests run on the 686 total overdose deaths.　 There were on average 2.6 drugs found for each death (1783 instances of the 82 different drugs found in the 686 deaths).　

For all drug deaths, the numbers per age range for 2012 were as follows:

A breakdown by race and sex for 2012 for all drug overdose deaths follows:

A breakdown on the manner of death for 2012 drug overdose deaths follows:

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Please note: The GBI does not have a county by county breakdown of these statistics.

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