The opioid epidemic is pushing down the life expectancy in the US, new research says. Once a leader in longevity, the US has dropped behind most other high-income countries — due in large part to accidental deaths from prescription and illicit opioids that are sweeping the country.
The average lifespan in the US actually increased by two years between 2000 and 2015( from 76.8 years to 78.8 years), but that increase is lower than it should be. That’s in part because deaths from opioid overdoses more than tripled in that same time, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called the opioid epidemic "unprecedented in scope."
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