Fatal Overdoses In Nashville Nearly Double Since COVID-19 Arrived

The number of people dying from fatal overdoses in Nashville has nearly doubled since COVID-19 arrived. Public health officials say there seems to be a link to the pandemic, but they aren’t sure what it is.

January and February were pretty normal for suspected overdoses in Davidson County. Then the numbers began to rise. They more than doubled the prior years in April and thus far in May. Between March 1 and May 20, there have been 107 overdose deaths. That’s up from 56 in that timeframe in 2018, and 57 in 2019.

“It has been very difficult to tie this to a particular substance or a particular dealer in particular area or particular level of income, anything like that so far,”  says Trevor Henderson, Nashville’s overdose prevention coordinator. “The spread is pretty wide.”

Psychiatrists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center say they’re seeing more hospitalized patients citing the pandemic as a stressor contributing to relapse.

Spikes have also appeared in Memphis, which has seen 700 fatal and non-fatal overdoses since March 15. The Tennessee Department of Health organized a 5-day blitz to distribute clean needles and the overdose reversal drug Narcan.

Statewide, suspected overdoses for the year are up 10% over 2019, according to Health Department spokesperson Shelley Walker.

“We recognized the ongoing pandemic could trigger risk behaviors, and have been providing information on support available for those in recovery,” she writes in an email.

Cleveland and upstate New York are also seeing jumps in drug fatalities. Public health group Well Being Trust has predicted as many as 75,000 “deaths of despair” tied to the pandemic.

Local public health officials have some other theories. They say it’s possible that people are having trouble getting drugs from dealers they trust, upping the chances of buying drugs laced with deadly fentanyl.

The head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse tells the Associated Press that isolation also means using drugs alone, meaning no one is there to alert emergency responders to problems.

Nationwide, overdose deaths had leveled off for the first time in two decades, according to a study from the Trust for America’s Health.