[...]
Dr. Allison Lin, an addiction psychiatrist at University of Michigan Medical School, who was not involved in the report, said there has also been wider use of medications to treat opioid use disorder as well as an increase of public awareness of the dangers of opioid use.
"These are the things that we know, at least from a research perspective, to be lifesaving," she told ABC News. "We've been battling this overdose epidemic for now over a decade, and so there's been tremendous efforts invested by communities, by the federal government, by our state governments, anything from prevention to overdose education."
Lin said although the data is encouraging, it's too soon to say the overdose crisis in the U.S. is over and that public health officials should continue their efforts to drive down overdose death rates.
"It's nice to celebrate all the hard work that people have been putting in; we're starting to see some rewards from that," she said. "But it's not time to like move from the gas pedal, I would say."
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