What are nitazenes and why are they dangerous?

Nitazenes are a class of synthetic opioids that are extremely potent, up to 500 times stronger than heroin, posing significant addiction risks and a high likelihood of overdose.

How do nitazenes affect postmortem toxicology results?

Research indicates that nitazenes can degrade significantly in postmortem blood samples, making them difficult to detect accurately in toxicology tests.

What are the implications of undercounting nitazene deaths?

Undercounting nitazene deaths leads to inaccurate drug-related mortality data, which hampers the development and funding of effective harm reduction strategies and allows preventable deaths to continue.

Home / Health / Deadly Opioid Deaths Hidden: Study Reveals Underreporting

Deadly Opioid Deaths Hidden: Study Reveals Underreporting

9 Feb

•

Summary

Nitazenes are up to 500 times stronger than heroin, posing extreme risks.
Study suggests UK opioid deaths may be underestimated by one-third.
Drug degradation in samples hinders accurate postmortem detection.

Deadly Opioid Deaths Hidden: Study Reveals Underreporting

A concerning study from King's College London suggests that the number of deaths attributed to nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids hundreds of times more potent than heroin, may be underestimated across the UK. Researchers found that these powerful drugs can degrade significantly in postmortem blood samples, leading to missed detections in toxicology tests.

Testing revealed that an average of only 14% of nitazene remained in rat samples under realistic handling conditions. Applying this to UK data, researchers identified an excess of drug deaths in Birmingham in 2023, suggesting non-detection of nitazene as a probable cause.

Dr. Caroline Copeland highlighted that this undercounting has serious implications for drug-related mortality data, which are crucial for designing harm reduction strategies. The study implies that current efforts to combat the synthetic opioid crisis may be based on incomplete information, leading to preventable deaths.