Substance use rose by 13% in the US during 2020, which could result in an additional 252,000 cases in the number of Americans who abuse substances as the number of overdoses also increased. Prevalent cases of opioid use disorder (OUD) could roughly total 1.9 million in 2021 and such an increase will cost the US billions to treat alcohol addiction and OUD and may also reduce the US life expectancy after increases in recent years, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Opioid Use Disorder: Opportunity Analysis and Forecasts to 2028’, the US market for opioid addiction alone is already expected to nearly double from $1.5bn to $2.9bn between 2021 and 2028. Similarly, one can expect the markets related to alcohol addiction to increase due to various associations with fatal liver diseases, heart problems and other complications.

In the case of alcohol use, GlobalData epidemiologists estimated that over 21.2 million Americans are expected to suffer from alcohol addiction in 2021. Therefore, a 13% increase would result in an additional 2.8 million cases of alcohol addiction this year.

Walter Gabriel, MPH, Epidemiologist at GlobalData, comments: “Such a significant increase in the prevalence of substance use will increase the overall cost of treating alcohol addiction and OUD downstream as substance abuse needs to be managed over a long period of time.”

The impacts of substance abuse go beyond the economic cost as the demographic profile of the US could also see a shift in life expectancy. An increase in the prevalence of substance abuse would also result in a significant loss of life.

Gabriel continues: “Since the brunt of this loss will mainly impact younger populations as substance abuse tends to affect young and middle-aged adults disproportionately, this trend could lead to stagnation or even a decrease in the US life expectancy as more younger adults die prematurely.”

To reduce the economic and human toll from substance abuse in the US, more attention needs to be paid towards primary and secondary interventions.

Gabriel adds: “More awareness of substance use should be put forward. In addition, a preventative approach should be taken to reduce the proportion of Americans transitioning from substance use to substance misuse.”