Nearly one-fifth of patients suffering from an opioid abuse disorder died over the course of a four-year follow up period, according to a study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.
For the study, researchers examined EHR data from a large university healthcare system, identifying 2,576 adult patients with documented opioid abuse disorder admitted between 2006 and 2014. After four years since initial admission, 465 of the patients had died. Mortality rates among this group are more than 10 times higher than the general population.
While approximately 19 percent of the deaths were directly attributable to opioid overdose, most patients died from other conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, hepatitis C virus and other infectious disease. Due to the infection risks associated with intravenous drug use, HCV rates are high among these users. Individuals with opioid abuse disorders infected with HCV carried double the risk of death compared to opioid abusers without the virus, according to the study.
"Patients with OUD in a general healthcare system demonstrated alarmingly high morbidity and mortality, which challenges healthcare systems to find innovative ways to identify and treat patients with substance use disorder," concluded the study's authors.
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