More people may have overdosed from fentanyl than know it because emergency rooms rarely screen for the drug: study

When patients show up to emergency rooms experiencing a drug overdose, they are often given toxicology screening to determine what narcotic was responsible.

But the tests used rarely screen for fentanyl — a synthetic opiate making its way into many street drugs. The drug is responsible for a rise in overdose deaths around the country, a recent study by Epic Research and the Center for Substance Abuse Research revealed.

"Between 45 and 50% of the patients who come in with a generic diagnosis of an overdose end up getting tested...