Killed by Pain

Every day, over 115 Americans die from an opioid overdose. Prescription opioid misuse costs $78.5b a year in healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice.

The situation is bad, and it's only getting worse.

This is the story of the opioid crisis in America.



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Christie was 36-years-old.

She came from Springfield, Massachusetts. She was a line cook by day, and she volunteered at the library at night.

Walking in the street, you would've just passed her by. She was that normal.

But she was among millions of Americans who became quietly addicted to opioids since the late 1990s.

Then, in 2014, she became one of thousands of opioid crisis victims who died from an overdose.

Christie isn't alone.

In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found over 28,000 deaths from prescription opioids and heroin. It was a record 14% increase over the previous year.

Play with the visualization below to learn more about 2014.

The story starts in 1998, with a car accident...

... that leaves 18-year-old Christie with chronic pain in her lower back. Therapy doesn't work out, so the family doctor prescribes her Oxycontin, a high risk painkiller.




The First Wave: late 1990s


America's opioid crisis began with early efforts to reduce pain in patients. Americans were concerned with chronic pain, and pharmaceutical companies responded by advertising their prescriptions as non-addictive.

As a result, opioid prescriptions skyrocketed, and drug overdoses followed.

A year later, Christie's doctor refuses to renew her prescription...

... saying that she'd been taking the pill for too long. She refers her to a pain clinic.

But the clinic doesn't take Christie's insurance, forcing her to find alternative solutions as her withdrawl symptoms set in.

Chills. Vomiting. Nausea. Insomnia.



The Second Wave: the 2000s


Opioid prescriptions nearly triple, even as doctors try to curb the rise.

Meanwhile, the healthcare system is slow to identify and help with this treatment. Many people with addictions don't receive treatment, and turn elsewhere: heroin.

"He said, 'Try a little bit of this.' I sniffed it first, and it made all my sickness go away."


After an introduction from her then-boyfriend, Christie spends most of her 20s struggling with a heroin addiction.

She detoxes and relapses too many times to count.


The Third Wave: late 2000s to present


Heroin now causes a larger share of deaths than prescription opioids, but there are new players in the game: synthetic opioids. They're highly potent and easy to overdose on, and they've become alarmingly available in recent years.

One of the deadliest is fentanyl. It's 30-50x more powerful than heroin, and 100x more powerful than morphine.

There's a larger trend here.

Since 2013, the number of overdose deaths caused by synthetic opioids has risen from 3,000 to over 28,000 , a rate that drastically outpaces the increase of other opioid related deaths.

Select dates to explore the historical rise of the opioid crisis.

Even as close as Massachusetts, Christie's story is all too common.


The opioid-related death rate in MA - over 29.7 deaths per 100,000 persons in 2016 - is more than double the national average. This puts Massachusetts in the ten states with the highest rates of opioid-related deaths.

From 2012 to 2016, deaths attributed to opioid overdose have risen from around 600 deaths to over 1800. Of those, 1550 were caused by synthetic opioids.

The Toll on Masssachusetts

Opioids have proliferated rapidly since the early 2000s. In 2013-14, opioid-related deaths occured in two-thirds of MA cities and towns, leading then-Governor Deval Patrick to declare a public health emergency.

Select time-frames to explore the percent increase in opioid related deaths

The Massachusetts situation, by the demographics.

Select an age and gender below to learn more.

In 2014, _______ of all deaths of ________ aged ______ were due to opioid related causes.
That's a total of ____ deaths.

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What's being done?

There's no avoiding the fact that there's still a lot to do. But organizations across national, state, and locals are working to fight the opioid crisis. And their initiatives are making a difference.


US Department of Health and Human Services

National Institutes of Health

Massachusetts State

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Select an organization to learn about its work.

And there's a lot you can do to help.

Reach out

Call SAMHSA's National Helpline, a free & confidential hotline, if you or someone you know struggles with addiction.

It's open 24/7, 365 days a year.


Visit SAMHSA

Donate

Support organizations like Shatterproof, a national nonprofit committed to helping families affected by addiction.

Connect people to the help they need.


Get started

Get involved

Find out what your local aid efforts look like. Read up on current events. Then, tell your friends.

Awareness saves lives.


Learn more

About our team.

This is a final project for Harvard's CS171: Data Visualization.

Luke

Luke Xu

Luke is a junior in Pforzheimer House. He concentrates in English with a secondary in Computer Science.

Vicky

Vicky Xu

Vicky is a junior in Currier House. She concentrates in Applied Mathematics.

Steven

Steven Jin

Steven is a senior in Currier House. He concentrates in Computer Science with a secondary in Music.

Jung

Jung Hur

Jung is a senior in Quincy House. She concentrates in Bioengineering with a secondary in Computer Science.

References & sources


Story

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2018 Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes — United States. CDC, Department of Health and Human Services. Published August 31, 2018.
  2. Seth P, Rudd R, Noonan, R, Haegerich, T. Quantifying the Epidemic of Prescription Opioid Overdose Deaths. American Journal of Public Health, March 2018.
  3. Florence CS, Zhou C, Luo F, Xu L. The economic burden of prescription opioid overdose, abuse, and dependence in the U.S. Updated 2016.
  4. Yale Medicine Overcoming-Opioid-Addiction. Updated February 28, 2017
  5. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Opioid Overdose Crisis. Revised March 2018.
  6. Massachusetts Government Chapter 55 Overdose Report Updated August 2017.

Data

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prescription opioid overdose data. Updated August 1, 2017.
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. US prescribing rate maps. Updated July 31, 2017.
  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug overdose data.
  4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug poisoning mortality.
  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug overdose deaths by demographics. Updated 2014.
  6. Massachusetts Department of Public Health. 2014 Opioid Data.
  7. Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Current Opioid Data.
  8. Kaggle. US Opioid Prescriptions.

Stock images obtained from Pexels, Unsplash, and Harvard University.


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