Public Views About Opioid Overdose and People With Opioid Use Disorder

How do US adults view the severity of the opioid overdose problem, responsibility for solving it, and people experiencing opioid addiction, and do views differ by political ideology?In this survey study of 1552 US adults, more than 70% of survey respondents viewed opioid overdose as serious and identified people who use opioids and pharmaceutical companies as most responsible for solutions; by ideology, 65% or more of conservatives, moderates, and liberals shared these views. Overall, 38% and 58% were unwilling to have a person with opioid addiction as a neighbor or marry into their family, respectively.These findings suggest that the US public continues to view opioid overdose as a serious and stigmatized condition.

Corresponding Author: Emma E. McGinty, PhD, MS, Division of Health Policy emm4010@med.cornell.edu).

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