Drug- and alcohol-related heart disease and stroke deaths rising

While deaths from cardiovascular disease were falling over the first two decades of this century, those involving substance use rose an average of 4% per year, according to new research.

The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed mortality trends using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 1999 to 2019. The analysis found increases in substance use-related cardiovascular deaths were highest among women, American Indian and Alaska Native people, younger adults, those living in rural areas and cannabis and psychostimulant users.

Alcohol played a prominent role, linked to 65% of all cardiovascular deaths related to substance use. Nearly 14% were related to opioids, just under 10% to cocaine and 6.5% to stimulant use. Cannabis was least associated with cardiovascular deaths, linked to less than 1%, but experienced a large increase over the study period. This could be due to a growing number of states legalizing its use or increased potency of the drug, the authors suggested.

"The study results were generally consistent with what we see in our clinic while caring for patients with cardiovascular disease," senior study author Dr. Dmitry Abramov said in a news release. Abramov is a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Loma Linda University Health in California.

While alcohol and opioids were the substances most associated with cardiovascular deaths, the increases in cardiovascular deaths linked to stimulants – mostly amphetamines – were particularly prominent, he said. "This highlights both the ongoing risk of common substances, including alcohol and opioids, and also demonstrates the need to tackle amphetamines as a substance whose contribution to...