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Fentanyl-Linked Overdose Deaths Among Seniors Soar 9,000% in 8 Years
- October 14, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Oct. 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Fentanyl overdose deaths are surging among seniors, particularly in cases where the powerful opioid is mixed with stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamine, a new study says.
Fentanyl-stimulant overdose (OD) deaths skyrocketed by an astonishing 9,000% during the past eight years, approaching rates found in younger adults, researchers reported Saturday at an American Society of Anesthesiologists’ meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
“A common misconception is that opioid overdoses primarily affect younger people,” lead researcher Gab Pasia, a medical student at the University of Nevada-Reno School of Medicine, said in a news release.
“Our analysis shows that older adults are also impacted by fentanyl-related deaths and that stimulant involvement has become much more common in this group,” Pasia said. “This suggests older adults are affected by the current fourth wave of the opioid crisis, following similar patterns seen in younger populations.”
America’s opioid epidemic has unfolded in four distinct waves, researchers explained in background notes.
Prescription opioids started the crisis in the 1990s, followed by heroin beginning in 2010 as prescribing standards tightened, researchers said. A third wave involving fentanyl began in 2013, followed by the current fourth wave of fentanyl mixed with stimulants that began around 2015.
Fentanyl is a hundred times more powerful than morphine and 50% more powerful than heroin, making it a serious risk for overdose. Illicitly produced fentanyl is sold alone or combined with heroin and other substances.
Seniors are especially vulnerable to overdoses because many live with chronic health problems that require taking several different medications daily, researchers said. As people age, they also tend to process drugs more slowly, potentially increasing their impact.
For the new study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 405,000 death certificates issued between 1999 and 2023 that listed fentanyl as a cause of death. Older adults represented more than 17,000 of the deaths.
Overall, annual fentanyl-related deaths increased by 1,470% between 2015 and 2023 for seniors 65 and older, and by 660% among younger adults 25 to 64, results show.
There also was a disturbing increase in the number of overdose deaths related specifically to fentanyl mixed with stimulants.
Among seniors 65 and older, fentanyl-stimulant overdose deaths increased from less than 9% of fentanyl-related OD deaths in 2015 to 50% of deaths in 2023 – a 9,000% increase.
Younger adults 25 to 64 also experienced a spike in fentanyl-stimulant deaths, rising from 21% of OD deaths in 2015 to 59% of deaths in 2023, or a 2,115% increase.
Fentanyl-stimulant deaths among seniors began to sharply rise in 2020, while deaths linked to other substances either remained stable or declined, researchers found.
Cocaine and methamphetamine were the most common stimulants paired with fentanyl among seniors, surpassing co-use with other substances like alcohol, heroin or benzodiazepines.
“The findings underscore that fentanyl overdoses in older adults are often multi-substance deaths — not due to fentanyl alone — and the importance of sharing drug misuse prevention strategies to older patients,” Pasia said.
However, the study could not explain why this trend is occurring, Pasia noted.
Doctors, pain medicine specialists and pharmacists should be aware of the risk of multiple substance use among seniors, and be cautious when prescribing opioids, the research team said.
“Older adults who are prescribed opioids, or their caregivers, should ask their clinicians about overdose prevention strategies, such as having naloxone available and knowing the signs of an overdose,” said researcher Dr. Richard Wang, an anesthesiology resident at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
“With these trends in mind, it is more important than ever to minimize opioid use in this vulnerable group and use other pain control methods when appropriate,” Wang said in a news release. “Proper patient education and regularly reviewing medication lists could help to flatten this terrible trend.”
Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about substance use in older adults.
SOURCE: American Society of Anesthesiologists, news release, Oct. 11, 2025
