Drug Overdoses Increasing Exponentially In Pennsylvania, Study Finds

Drug overdose rates have gone through the roof in Pennsylvania over the last 35 years, a new study has found.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh discovered an enormous upward trend - a 14-fold increase - in drug overdose in the Keystone State from 1979 to 2014.

The demographic most affected? Over the course of the 35 years considered, white women between the ages of 35 and 44, living in the counties surrounding both Philadelphia and Scranton, suffered the most significant increase in overdose deaths.

The highest rate of death in 2014, however, came from 25-34 year-olds.

Their findings were published Thursday in the scientific journal Plos One in the study "Patterns and Trends in Accidental Poisoning Deaths: Pennsylvania’s Experience 1979-2014."

About 110 people die from drug overdoses in the United States every day, according to the research. Overdoses took the mantle of leading cause of accidental death in the country from motor vehicle accidents in 2008.

Pennsylvania suffers from drug overdoses disproportionately to most of the rest of the country, with a "significantly higher" poisoning rate than the US average.

"These analyses will identify specific demographic and geographic subgroups most at risk for accidental poisoning death to help inform physicians, law enforcement, and public health decision makers," researchers said, identifying young whites and older blacks as the most at-risk groups.

"Interventions to reduce overdoses in PA should be designed and implemented to appropriately target these demographics."

The results were compiled using information from the Mortality and Population Data System, a databank comprised from both the US Census and the National Center for Health Statistics.

Researchers said that the study was the first to examine overdoses in Pennsylvania over a significant period of time.