The opioid overdose epidemic is the worst public
health crisis in Pennsylvania, and the nation, in almost a generation. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania takes an all-hands-on deck approach to preventing addiction,
saving lives and getting Pennsylvanians into treatment. In March of
2018, this dashboard was launched to provide data behind Pennsylvania's
response to the crisis collected through the Governor's Opioid Disaster Declaration, and to illustrate
the impact the epidemic has on communities.
The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and the Interagency Substance Use Response Team have implemented a three-year strategic
plan to comprehensively address the components of prevention, rescue,
treatment, and recovery as they relate to substance use in the commonwealth.
Pennsylvania Quick Stats
What's New!
Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and Overdose Surveillance Data
The Pennsylvania Department of Health's Office of Drug Surveillance and Misuse Prevention (ODSMP) has updated their interactive data report for the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) and Overdose Surveillance data. This report is now broken into three separate reports:
Links to these data have been added to the corresponding sections of the Opioid Data Dashboard.
Estimated Number of Individuals with Drug Use Disorder
Drug Use Disorder is defined as any substance use disorder not including alcohol use disorder. This is an approximation for Opioid Use Disorder prevalence. The estimates are developed by applying mortality weights derived from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics to statewide illicit drug use estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration).
Estimated Number of Drug Overdose Deaths
The number of drug overdose deaths increased sharply in 2020, as the challenge of the ongoing substance use epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic affected Pennsylvania, and the entire United States. This is further evidence that there is more work to do to decrease the number of drug overdose deaths. The demographics of these data are available by race, ethnicity, age and gender. Pennsylvania continues to focus on saving lives, expanding treatment access and getting patients into treatment.
NOTE: Preliminary overdose death data includes any fatal drug overdose, except for alcohol-only overdose deaths. “No Value” count indicates that the county’s preliminary overdose death count is not available because it is between 1 and 9.
More detailed drug overdose death data is available on the PDMP Interactive Data Report, Overdose Surveillance Data.
Complete a quick survey to share your experience using the Opioid Data Dashboard.
Have a question ? Email RA-DHPRESSOFFICE@pa.gov.