Heroin Epidemic: US Sees Dramatic Increase In Opioid-Related Hospital Care, Government Data Show

The U.S. is facing an opioid crisis, government data released Tuesday shows. The number of opioid-related inpatient stays at hospitals increased by 64 percent between 2005 and 2014, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reported.

Throughout those years, the number of opioid-related emergency department visits nearly doubled.

Read: Ohio Opioid Epidemic: List Of Drug Companies Sued By State Amid Addiction Crisis

In 2014 alone, there were 1.27 million emergency room visits or inpatient stays for opioid-related issues, the Washington Post said, which first reported the numbers.

Which states have more opioid-related hospitalizations?

The states that consistently had the lowest rates of opioid-related inpatient stays in 2014 were Iowa, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming. Iowa also saw fewer opioid-linked emergency department visits, as well as Arkansas.

Massachusetts was the state that consistently ranked as having among the highest rates of opioid-related inpatient stays. Connecticut, Maryland and Washington were among the states with the highest rates in all but one sex or age group. As for emergency visits, Maryland consistently ranked as having the highest rates of opioid-related ED visits.

Opioid-related hospitalizations among women spikes

The report found hospitalizations related to opioid painkillers and heroin jumped by 75 percent among women between 2005 and 2014, compared to men, which increased at 55 percent.

Due to the spike in females, women and men were hospitalized at almost the same rate in 2014, about 225 hospitalizations per 100,000 people across the country that year, the report said.

"As the report makes clear, over the past decade, opioid abuse has affected both sexes and all age groups," AHRQ Director Gopal Khanna said in a statement.

West Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts saw the highest number of hospitalizations among women. Those states saw more than 350 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in 2014. Meanwhile, the District of Columbia, New York and Maryland had the highest rate of hospitalizations among men in 2014, with more than 440 hospital cases per 100,000.

Read: FDA To Remove Opioid Painkiller From Market: 5 Alternative Treatments For Relieving Pain

The report also found the rate of opioid-related visits to emergency departments was highest among adults ages 25-44 nationwide. However, in 13 states, including California, those 65 years old and older were the ones most likely to be hospitalized.

The AHRQ report comes after Ohio recently filed a lawsuit against five major drug companies. The state’s attorney general said the companies misrepresented the risks of prescription opioid painkillers that led to a drug addiction epidemic in the state. The suit said 2.3 million people in Ohio were prescribed opioids last year, which subsequently led to heroin abuse. The lawsuit also said opioids became the main source of unintentional drug overdoses in the state.

The companies that have been sued by Ohio are: Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Allergan.

AHRQ's new report, "Patient Characteristics of Opioid-Related Inpatient Stays and Emergency Department Visits Nationally and by State, 2014," can be found here.