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Premature opioid-related deaths doubled in Canada after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, and more than one in four deaths occurred in young adults, a new study suggested.

"The intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic with the drug toxicity crisis in Canada has created an urgent need to better understand the patterns of opioid-related deaths across the country to inform targeted public health responses," the study authors wrote.

Some Canadian provinces were disproportionately affected by the crisis, they noted. For example, in Alberta, close to half of all deaths among people aged 20-39 years were opioid-related.

"Although the finding that the early loss of life was increasing over time was expected, the magnitude of this burden across Canada surprised me," lead author Shaleesa Ledlie, MPH, a PhD candidate at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, told Medscape Medical News. Head over to Medscape to read the full story.