The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a 113% increase in the "Years of Life Lost" among adolescents and young people in the United States due to unintentional drug overdose, according to researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine.

Study findings published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health also document the role of fentanyl in rising overdose rates.

Excess mortality was calculated in Years of Life Lost (YLL), which is the difference between the age at which a person dies and their expected remaining lifespan. In 2019, U.S. life expectancy at birth was 78.8 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"Mortality due to unintentional overdose in adolescents reached an all-time high in 2020," said addiction medicine specialist Dr. O. Trent Hall, study corresponding author and an assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ohio State. "The majority of deaths involved fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. The trends depicted in this study signify the need for increased harm-reduction approaches and treatment of opioid use disorder in adolescents."

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