New study sheds light on ripple effects of overdose deaths

When someone overdoses and dies, surviving loved ones can feel as if they’ve been thrown into a crater of grief. Since 2000, 1.1 million people have fatally overdosed in the United States, and a new study helps quantify the profound depth of suffering.

According to a nationally representative survey conducted by the RAND Corporation, 42 percent of U.S. adults said they have known someone who died from drug overdose. That amounts to an estimated 125 million Americans.

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The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health this week, serves as an urgent call to action for addressing the ripple effects of overdose deaths within communities. Overdose bereavement is neglected in both scientific literature and “in our conversations about the broader overdose crisis,” Alison Athey, the study’s lead author, told the PBS NewsHour.

Megan McGrew/ PBS NewsHour

This neglect is “the product of good intentions” of saving lives, but stigma against overdose victims, as well as a lack of resources tailored to meet survivors’ sometimes complex grief continue to shape the experiences of the people left behind.

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Overdose loss was not evenly distributed across demographic or geographic groups, the study found. People in New England and parts of the Deep South were more likely to say they knew someone whose death was linked to substance use. These are also regions that have been particularly hard-hit by the overdose crisis. The same was true for people in more population-dense areas than in rural areas, and for people who were born in the U.S. rather than people who were immigrants.

Megan McGrew/ PBS NewsHour

Overdose deaths have climbed for years. In 2022 alone, more than 106,000 people fatally overdosed.

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Athey, a clinical psychologist and suicide prevention expert, said the people who know others who died by suicide are at greater risk of suicide themselves. Whether potential parallels of risk exist for people connected to overdose deaths is a subject for more research. In the meantime, Athey said, policymakers and health providers should do more to reach people struggling with overdose bereavement.

“We’re getting to the point in the overdose crisis where we need to think more creatively and more expansively,” Athey said. “There’s this huge gap that needs to be addressed from all sides.”