Lead: Opioid Prescribing and Suicide Risk in the United States

Lead Story:

Opioid Prescribing and Suicide Risk in the United States

The American Journal of Psychiatry

Approximately 40% of overdose suicide deaths in the United States involve opioids. Because of their respiratory depression effects and narrow therapeutic window, opioids pose a greater risk than any other drug class of an intentional overdose proving to be lethal.  In this retrospective study of US commuting zone–level opioid prescriptions and mortality, regional decreases in opioid prescriptions were consistently associated with declines in total suicide deaths, including suicide overdose deaths involving opioids. For some opioid prescribing measures, negative associations were observed with unintentional overdose deaths involving opioids among younger people. Individual-level inferences are limited by the ecological nature of the analysis.

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