Medindia LOGIN REGISTER
Medindia

Suicide Risk is Tied to Varying Opioid Prescribing Patterns

by Dr. Jayashree Gopinath on Apr 11 2023 11:09 PM
Listen to this article
0:00/0:00

 Suicide Risk is Tied to Varying Opioid Prescribing Patterns
Regional opioid prescribing and suicide rates tend to change in the same direction because of high-dose opioid prescribing for long-time, and having multiple opioid prescribers. This finding is according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Suicide-Related Risks Due to Prescription Opioid Use

Deaths associated with prescription opioid use have been among the most pressing public health concerns of the past decade. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that overdose deaths in the US involving prescription Opioids increased to 16,416 in 2020.
Controversy surrounds the effects of policies to reduce opioid prescriptions on suicide rates. Until now it was not known whether certain opioid prescribing patterns were associated with particularly elevated suicide risk.

Despite a decline in the overall opioid prescribing rate in the US over the last 8 years, prescribing rates continue to remain very high in certain areas of the country. However, by evaluating regional changes, researchers estimated that opioid prescribing remained constant rather than decreased with the increasing national rate of suicide.

Analyses were based on data from the 2009–2017 U.S. national IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database and National Center for Health Statistics mortality data. Information was based on opioid prescriptions, with high-dose prescriptions (>120 mg/day morphine equivalents), with long-term prescriptions (>60 consecutive days), and with prescriptions from three or more prescribers.

For geographic aggregation, they used states and commuting zones as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They looked at opioid prescribing measures for four age groups: 10–24, 25–44, 45–64, and 65 years or older, as well as males and females.

Because the length of opioid prescribing is strongly associated with persistent opioid use the researchers included a measure of percentage opioid prescriptions for long-term opioid prescriptions measured at greater than or equal to 60 consecutive days.

Analysis of the Association of Prescription Opioid Use with Suicide Attempts

Among individuals in the 45- to 64-year age group, a change in regional suicide deaths was positively associated with a change in regional opioid prescriptions and a change in percentage with at least one opioid prescription. Overall, the association with change in suicide deaths was significantly stronger in the West than in the East or the Midwest.

In the U.S., geographic regions with the greatest declines in people filling opioid prescriptions also tended to have the greatest declines in total suicide deaths. Had the national decline in opioid prescriptions between 2009 and 2017 not occurred, there would have been 3 percent more suicide deaths overall in the U.S. according to the research team.

Advertisement
For four of five prescribing measures, decreasing regional opioid prescriptions were also related to declining total opioid-related overdose deaths. All these findings were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Although the present population-level research cannot establish that opioid prescriptions cause deaths by suicide, the results are consistent with the view that opioid prescription policies and practices should give careful attention to possible connections between prescription opioids and suicide risk.

Advertisement


Source-Eurekalert


Advertisement