What question did this study set out to answer?

To evaluate the association between continuous prescribed opioid dosages and unintentional fatal overdose risk to delineate dose-dependent risk thresholds.

January 24, 2016Medical Care

A Detailed Exploration Into the Association of Prescribed Opioid Dosage and Overdose Deaths Among Patients With Chronic Pain

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

To evaluate the association between continuous prescribed opioid dosages and unintentional fatal overdose risk to delineate dose-dependent risk thresholds.
Conducted a nested case-control study with risk-set sampling among Veterans Health Administration patients diagnosed with chronic pain and prescribed opioids.
Identified unintentional fatal opioid analgesic overdoses via National Death Index records and extracted prescribed opioid dosages in morphine-equivalent milligrams (MEM) from pharmacy data.
Prescribed opioid dosages were significantly higher among overdose decedents (mean=98.1 MEM, SD=112.7; median=60 MEM, IQR 30–120) than controls (mean=47.7 MEM, SD=65.2; median=25 MEM, IQR 15–45; P<0.001).
ROC analysis demonstrated that prescribed dosage was a moderate predictor of overdose death, showing cases had higher dosages than 71% of matched controls.
No discrete dosage cut-point separated cases from controls, but findings indicate lowering the guideline threshold below 100 MEM could mitigate overdose risk while impacting relatively few low-risk patients.

Discussion

No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.

Implication

Nested case-control study demonstrates higher prescribed opioid dosages in fatal overdose cases among chronic pain patients, suggesting lowering current dosage guidelines could reduce mortality.

Cite This Study

Bohnert et al. (2016) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a17fcd13aabde875b132d23 https://doi.org/10.1097/mlr.0000000000000505

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Implication

Nested case-control study demonstrates higher prescribed opioid dosages in fatal overdose cases among chronic pain patients, suggesting lowering current dosage guidelines could reduce mortality.

A Detailed Exploration Into the Association of Prescribed Opioid Dosage and Overdose Deaths Among Patients With Chronic Pain

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

A Detailed Exploration Into the Association of Prescribed Opioid Dosage and Overdose Deaths Among Patients With Chronic Pain

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

Also Consider

Also Consider