More than 60 percent of patients who die of an opioid overdose likely have a diagnosed chronic pain condition, suggests a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry.
For the study, researchers examined a sample of 13,000 Medicaid-enrolled adults who died of an opioid-related overdose from 2001 through 2007. A majority — 61.5 percent — were diagnosed with chronic pain conditions not related to cancer in the final year of their life.
Patients who died of overdoses and did not have a chronic pain condition were often diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorder. More than 40 percent of deceased patients without a chronic pain condition and 22 percent of patients with chronic pain were diagnosed with depression. Among the entire study sample, less than 1 in 20 patients received a diagnosis of opioid use disorder in the last month of life.
"The frequent occurrence of treated chronic pain and mental health conditions among overdose decedents underscores the importance of offering substance use treatment services in clinics that treat patients with chronic pain and mental health problems," said Mark Olfson, MD, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center New York City and lead investigator of the study. "Such a strategy might increase early clinical intervention in patients who are at high risk for fatal opioid overdose."
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