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2019-10-25 Science & Technology
Massachusetts Study Confirms That People Rarely Die After Using Opioids Prescribed for Them
h/t Instapundit
Although prescription pain medication is commonly blamed for the "opioid epidemic," such drugs play a small and shrinking role in deaths involving this category of psychoactive substances. A recent study of opioid-related deaths in Massachusetts underlines this crucial point, finding that prescription analgesics were detected without heroin or fentanyl in less than 17 percent of the cases. Furthermore, decedents had prescriptions for the opioids that showed up in toxicology tests just 1.3 percent of the time.

    Objectives:
    Opioid-related overdoses are commonly attributed to prescription opioids. We examined data on opioid-related overdose decedents in Massachusetts. For each decedent, we determined which opioid medications had been prescribed and dispensed and which opioids were detected in postmortem medical examiner toxicology specimens.

    Methods:
    Among opioid-related overdose decedents in Massachusetts during 2013-2015, we analyzed individually linked postmortem opioid toxicology reports and prescription drug monitoring program records to determine instances of overdose in which a decedent had a prescription active on the date of death for the opioid(s) detected in the toxicology report. We also calculated the proportion of overdoses for which prescribed opioid medications were not detected in decedents’ toxicology reports.

    Results:
    Of 2916 decedents with complete toxicology reports, 1789 (61.4%) had heroin and 1322 (45.3%) had fentanyl detected in postmortem toxicology reports. Of the 491 (16.8%) decedents with ≥1 opioid prescription active on the date of death, prescribed opioids were commonly not detected in toxicology reports, specifically: buprenorphine (56 of 97; 57.7%), oxycodone (93 of 176; 52.8%), and methadone prescribed for opioid use disorder (36 of 112; 32.1%). Only 39 (1.3%) decedents had an active prescription for each opioid detected in toxicology reports on the date of death.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-10-25 02:30|| || Front Page|| [12 views ]  Top

#1 Self protecting study. For example, I hurt my knee. The docs give me an opioid drug for the pain. I get hooked on them. The knee heals and I no longer have the script for opioids. So I go out and find them on the street. The pills are pricey and hard to find so I shift to heroin or fentanyl. Eventually I OD. This is bull.....
Posted by 49 Pan 2019-10-25 11:39||   2019-10-25 11:39|| Front Page Top

#2 But Herb says if the gummint doesn't stop you from od-ing it's all good.
Posted by M. Murcek 2019-10-25 15:28||   2019-10-25 15:28|| Front Page Top

#3 All this is helpful in directing resources where they can do the most good. But how do we stop the heroin and fentanyl overdoses? That's been a question for most of my lifetime, and I don't see any good answers. I wish someone could.
Posted by Tom 2019-10-25 17:29||   2019-10-25 17:29|| Front Page Top

#4 Some of these OD's are like Gump's box of chocolate. Never can tell what's in the juice until it's too late.
Posted by Texhooey 2019-10-25 18:58||   2019-10-25 18:58|| Front Page Top

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