Fewer than one in three teenagers with opioid use disorder receive treatment, according to a study published in this month’s Health Affairs journal that looked at the disorder in minors from 2022 to 2023.
In 2023, 557 teens died of opioid overdose, nearly threefold as many as in 2018, while adult opioid deaths only went up by 65% during this time, according to the study. Drug overdoses are now among the leading causes of death for US teenagers.
