Article about mortality and desease caused by addiction

“Addiction: A Growing Global Health Challenge with Massive Impact on Mortality and Wellbeing

Article Newsletter RAG AP March 2026

“Substance use, including tobacco, alcohol and drugs, is one of the largest preventable drivers of global mortality and disease burden, and a major underlying contributor to cardiovascular disease, cancer, injuries and mental health problems worldwide.”

 

Ranking of Major Global Killers and scientific references

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Breakdown – Addictive Substances (Combined Category)

Component

Estimated Deaths / Year

Tobacco: ~7–8 million

Alcohol: ~2.6–3 million

Drugs: ~0.6 million

TOTAL: ~11–12 million

 

Extension – Addictive Behaviours

Beyond substance use, addictive behaviours such as gambling, gaming, and problematic digital use are rapidly expanding the global addiction burden, particularly among young people.

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  • An estimated 500 million to over 1 billion people worldwide are affected by behavioural addictions or problematic use patterns
  • Gambling-related harm affects approximately 450 million people globally, with around 80 million suffering from a gambling disorder
  • Problematic internet and smartphone use affects approximately 3–10% of the global population, with significantly higher prevalence among adolescents
  • The World Health Organization has formally recognised gaming disorder as a mental health condition in the ICD-11

Although behavioural addictions are less directly linked to mortality, they contribute significantly to:

  • depression and anxiety
  • increased risk of substance use
  • suicide and self-harm
  • reduced educational and social functioning

Importantly, behavioural and substance addictions share common neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms, including reward system dysregulation, impulsivity, and coping deficits.

 

Global Interpretation

When combining substance-related and behavioural addictions, addiction emerges as:

  • one of the largest global health challenges, affecting up to 2 billion people worldwide
  • and contributing directly and indirectly to more than 11–13 million deaths annually

Addiction should therefore be understood as a cross-cutting determinant of global health, closely linked to:

  • cardiovascular disease and cancer
  • mental health disorders
  • injuries and violence
  • social and economic wellbeing

 

Key References (WHO / IHME / UNODC)

1. World Health Organization – Tobacco

“Tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year…”
 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco

2. World Health Organization – Alcohol

“Worldwide, around 2.6 million deaths were caused by alcohol consumption…”
 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol

3. World Health Organization – Alcohol & Drug Use News Release
https://www.who.int/news/item/25-06-2024-over-3-million-annual-deaths-due-to-alcohol-and-drug-use-majority-among-men

4. World Health Organization – Cardiovascular Diseases
 https://www.who.int/health-topics/cardiovascular-diseases

5. World Health Organization – Cancer
 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer

6. World Health Organization – Road Traffic Injuries
 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffic-injuries

7. World Health Organization – Top 10 Causes of Death
 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

8. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation – Smoking & Tobacco (GBD)
 https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/health-topics/smoking-and-tobacco

9. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation – GBD Results Tool (Alcohol)
 https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/

10. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation – GBD Results Tool (Drug Use Disorders)
 https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/

11. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – World Drug Report 2025
 https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2025.html

12. World Health Organization – ICD-11 (Gaming Disorder)
 https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases

13. The Lancet Public Health Commission – Gambling and Public Health
 https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/gambling

14. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – International Standards on Drug Use Prevention
 https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/prevention/prevention-standards.html

15. Trimbos Institute – Not Without Us?! Youth Participation in Prevention
 https://www.trimbos.nl/aanbod/webwinkel/af2032-not-without-us/