Women Hit Hardest by Opioid Crisis

The national opioid epidemic, generally recognized as the greatest public health crisis since the dawn of the HIV/AIDS virus, is indisputably hardest on women, experts said at a Feb. 5 session – the first in a series of planned meetings convened by HRSA to crack the problem of patchwork treatment and patient support for women in many parts of the country. "Women are experiencing increases of use and overdose from opioids at a faster rate than men. And if you slice the demographic pie even more narrowly, the picture doesn't look a lot better. The opioid use disorder crisis affects women across all age groups, all racial groups, all ethnicities, all geographic quarters of America and all socioeconomic status levels." - Brian LeClair, HRSA Principal Deputy Administrator. Learn More