Tropical cyclones linked to rise in drug-related deaths months after landfall

Tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and tropical storms, are linked to increased rates of drug-related deaths up to three months after the storm passes-particularly in higher-income, White communities and among younger populations. The study of more than 30 years of data by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health points to one overlooked health impact of climate change, which is leading to more active and severe storms.

Hurricanes and other tropical cyclones can trigger acute psychological distress that leads to substance use as a coping mechanism. They can also disrupt access to health care and substance use treatment, which may be life-threatening for individuals with severe substance-related conditions.

"Tropical cyclones, which have increased in strength, intensity, duration, and activity over recent decades, may exacerbate the ongoing crisis of drug overdoses. It is critically important that policymakers and public health authorities integrate substance use and mental health services into climate disaster preparedness and response planning," says Robbie M. Parks, PhD, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman and the study's senior author.

Across the 31-year study period and all exposed counties, the researchers estimated 1,235 excess psychoactive drug-related deaths associated with tropical cyclone exposure, an average of approximately 40 excess deaths per year. Excess deaths were calculated using nationally representative 2019 age-standardized death rates and county population sizes, with estimates conservatively limited to statistically significant storm impacts and accounting for how often counties were exposed to tropical cyclones.

"For every person who dies from drug-related causes in the days and weeks after a tropical cyclone, there are many others who may see other health-related impacts that accumulate over years. We haven't begun to explore those impacts that occur further down the line, say a year or five years after a tropical cyclone. That's something we'd like to investigate next," Spriggs notes.

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Additional authors of the current study include: Victoria D. Lynch, Yuanyu Lu, Lincole Jiang, Katherine M. Keyes, Diana Hernández, Anne E. Nigra, Columbia Mailman School; Wil Lieberman-Cribbin, Northwell Health, Great Neck; Brooke Anderson, Colorado State University, Fort Collins; Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, Brown University.

This study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES033742, ES009089) and the National Institute on Aging (AG093975).

Keyes reports receiving personal fees for consulting as an expert witness in national prescription opioid litigation during the conduct of the study. Parks reported receiving consultancy fees for work with the International Food Policy Research Institute.

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Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

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