Opioid deaths fall to lowest level in nearly a decade: HHS

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the findings Tuesday at Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network in Michigan. The announcement accompanied new federal analysis of declining mortality and an examination of prescription opioid dispensing and substance use treatment over the past decade.

“President Trump has attacked the opioid crisis from every direction — rightsizing opioid prescribing, disrupting the fentanyl supply chain, and expanding treatment and recovery,” Kennedy said. “Those actions are saving lives and driving opioid deaths to the lowest in nearly a decade. We will keep pressing forward until every American struggling with addiction has a real path to recovery and a chance to rebuild a healthy life.”

The accompanying analysis, published in Health Affairs Forefront, examined pharmacy dispensing between March 2015 and March 2026.

According to HHS’s summary of the findings, population-adjusted opioid prescriptions dispensed fell 54.7 percent over that period, while the total opioid dosage dispensed dropped 64.8 percent. The number of patients receiving prescription opioids through retail pharmacies declined 50.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the population-adjusted number of patients filling retail prescriptions for buprenorphine or naltrexone, medications used to treat substance use disorders, increased 118 percent, reaching more than twice the March 2015 level.

A separate report from HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation examined the causes contributing to the nation’s declining mortality.

CDC’s published provisional figures put the overall age-adjusted death rate at 689.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, the lowest on record.

The report found that unintentional overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, including fentanyl, fell approximately 20.7 percent, from 45,917 in 2024 to 36,406 in 2025.

HHS pointed to several policies across Trump’s two terms as contributing to progress against the opioid crisis, including the 2018 SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which strengthened federal prevention, treatment and recovery programs.

The department also highlighted Trump’s first-term goal of reducing opioid prescription fills by one-third within three years and a 2018 proposal to reduce manufacturing quotas for six frequently misused opioids.

During his second term, Trump signed the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025, according to HHS. The department also cited the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fentanyl Free America initiative and the establishment of Great American Recovery in January 2026 to coordinate federal prevention, treatment, recovery support and reentry efforts.

Although HHS credited the administration’s agenda, the prescription analysis spans more than a decade and multiple administrations. The Congressional Budget Office has reported that annual opioid-involved overdose deaths began declining in 2023.

HHS senior adviser Kathryn Burgum, co-chair of Great American Recovery, emphasized the impact on families.

“For families living with addiction, saving a life means another birthday, another holiday together, another chance to come home — that is what President Trump’s commitment to this fight is about,” Burgum said.