Read the text about how opioid use has changed life expectancy in the US. Fill in the blanks with the words and phrases from the list. There are TWO items you will not need.
US Life Expectancy Drops Because of Opioid Abuse
For the second year in a row life expectancy in the United States has
. One of the main reasons is the
in opioid-related deaths, especially with young adults.
Life expectancy in 2016 was 78.4 years,
to 78.6 years two years earlier. It is the first two-year decline in over 50 years. While life expectancy in other parts of the world is increasing, the
American is dying at an earlier age.
According to a recently
report, overdoses of painkillers and other opioids are causing more and more
deaths. The figures have risen from 6.1 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 21 per 100,000 people in 2016.
Last year 63 000 people died from some form of
overdose. While 15000 of them were heroin addicts, an
14,000 died from other painkillers. Most of them were in the 28-54 year age group.
In many cases, drug
is caused by a general dissatisfaction with a person's
situation. This results in depression and
if addicts don't have a family to support them. Such victims don't have the stability that they need. As a
, they turn to alcohol and drugs.
Opioids are drugs that
pain by targeting pain receptors in the brain. You need a doctor's
to get them, but more and more
people are buying them illegally on the streets.
While many start out with painkilling drugs, they later turn to heroin, also an opioid. In the terminal
of cancer, morphine is often used to reduce a patient's pain.