• Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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        2 years ago

        My guess is it’s an error and one is supposed to be opiates and the other opioids. At a guess, I’d say the Opioids is the one that has male and female usage closer to one another. Opiates generally includes heroin, morphine, codeine; whereas opioids is usually used to refer to all the synthetic ones such as fentanyl, etc. Technically, opioids as a term includes all opiates, but when they’re separated like this it’s usually along the natural/synthetic divide. The CDC defines the terms as:

        Opiates refer to natural opioids such as heroin, morphine and codeine. Opioids refer to all natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic opioids.

        I am not an expert, and am mostly guessing which is which in that section of the guide.