Though national data shows that opioid use disorder (OUD) and deaths from overdose have been trending downward since 2023, new data suggests the opioid epidemic is far from over.
Between 2022 to 2025, nearly 33% more people with an addiction to opioid drugs — which include morphine, heroin, pain relievers like oxycodone, and fentanyl — have received a diagnosis of OUD from a doctor.
And the age groups hit the hardest are probably not the ones you think. In fact, young adults under 30 made up the smallest share of patients.
What researchers found
While not every person with OUD has health insurance, most people with an opioid addiction do have health coverage, which makes treatment much easier.
In 2022, 449 patients per every 100,000 patients got diagnosed with OUD. In 2025, there were 596 patients for every 100,000 — a nearly 33% increase, the FAIR Health report found.
Getting that diagnosis is an important step for treatment, including helping people get medication like suboxone, methadone and naltrexone that reduce cravings and withdrawal.
Most (56.1%) patients diagnosed with OUD were men.
The age group with the most OUD diagnoses was 41 to 50 (28.1% of diagnoses). The 31 to 40 age group (26.4%) and 51 to 65 age group (25.8%) were close behind.
Patients over 65 accounted for 10.7% of OUD diagnoses, and those aged 23 to 30 accounted for 7.2%. Just under 2% of diagnoses were patients 22 and younger.
The states with the most patients with OUD were Tennessee with 1,551 patients per 100,000, West Virginia (1,528), Mississippi (1,373), Arkansas (1,320) and Delaware (1,256).
Of all insurance claims for OUD, 39% was for substance abuse service and treatment, 21% for drug screening, 14% for emergency room visits, and 8% for psychiatric and psychological services.
Changing opioid use
Opioid deaths had been rising, first from prescription drugs, then from heroin, and in recent years, fentanyl. In 2023, 217 people died every day from opioid overdose.
But the same year, things started changing — for the first time since 2018, annual opioid deaths started decreasing. They’ve been steadily declining since.
Part of the reason was a major shift in prescription recommendations from the CDC in 2022: they recommended doctors use non-opioid painkillers first, and if opioids were required, they should use the lowest effective dose over the shortest expected amount of time.
There’s also increased public awareness and resources like medication.
Methodone cuts risk of death in half for those struggling with opioid addiction — but previously required patients to come in six times a week to get it. Changing policy allowed patients to take home a month’s supply, which helped people avoid overdosing.
Plus, there are programs that track controlled substance prescriptions so patients can’t “doctor shop” — getting scripts from multiple doctors.
While FAIR Health doesn’t provide possible reasons for why OUD diagnoses are rising, their findings may not be at odds at all with CDC data showing that addiction is down.
More people with existing conditions could be getting the help they need.
This could be because more offices are offering opioid use disorder treatment, more medications like methodone are available, or insurance is covering more of the required doctor’s visits, screenings, and medication.
