Opioids and Organs: How Overdoses Affect the Supply of Donors, Waiting Lists, and Transplant Outcomes

As fatal drug overdoses have rapidly grown in recent years, patients awaiting organ transplants may be the unintended beneficiaries. In 2015, 52,404 people died due to drug overdose, 6,547 patients died while waiting for an organ transplant, and an additional 6,281 patients were removed from waiting lists because they were too sick to accept a transplant. In the same year, drug intoxication deaths yielded 848 deceased organ donors (9%) and 2,665 organ transplants (8%). In this paper, we use mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System, as well as restricted-use data on transplant candidates and recipients from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, to study the extent to which the recent growth in fatal drug overdoses impacts the supply of deceased organ donations and transplants. We find that for every 100 opioid overdose deaths, the supply of organ donors increases by approximately 1.5 and the number of organ transplants increases by almost 5. Nearly all of this association is concentrated among donors aged 18-50, who account for the majority of opioid overdose victims.