THE EVOLVING CONSEQUENCES OF OXYCONTIN REFORMULATION ON DRUG OVERDOSES.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Powell D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8460090 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The United States suffered a dramatic and well-documented increase in drug-related deaths from 2000 to 2018, primarily driven by prescription and non-prescription opioids, and concentrated in white and working-class areas. A growing body of research focuses on the causes, both medical and social, of this opioid crisis, but little work as yet on its larger ramifications. Using novel public records of accidental opioid deaths linked to behavioral political outcomes, we present causal analyses showing that opioid overdoses have significant political ramifications. Those close to opioid victims vote at lower rates than those less affected by the crisis, even compared to demographically-similar friends and family of other unexpected deaths. Moreover, among those friends and family affected by opioids, Republicans are 25% more likely to defect from the party than the statewide average Republican, while Democrats are no more likely to defect; Independents are moderately more likely to register as Democrats. These results illustrate an important research design for inferring the effects of tragic events and speak to the broad social and political consequences of what is becoming the largest public health crisis in modern United States history.
| S-EPMC7402477 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Death certificate data from the Multiple Cause of Death (MCOD) files were analyzed to better understand the drug categories most responsible for the increase in fatal overdoses occurring between 1999 and 2014. Statistical adjustment methods were used to account for the understatement in reported drug involvement occurring because death certificates frequently do not specify which drugs were involved in the deaths. The frequency of combination drug use introduced additional uncertainty and so a distinction was made between any versus exclusive drug involvement. Many results were sensitive to the starting and ending years chosen for examination. Opioid analgesics played a major role in the increased drug deaths for analysis windows starting in 1999 but other drugs, particularly heroin, became more significant for recent time periods. Combination drug use was important for all time periods and needs to be accounted for when designing policies to slow or reverse the increase in overdose deaths.
| S-EPMC5769014 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Importance:Prior lethality analyses of suicide means have historically treated drug poisoning other than alcohol poisoning as a lumped category. Assessing risk by drug class permits better assessment of prevention opportunities. Objective:To investigate the epidemiology of drug poisoning suicides. Design, Setting, and Participants:This cross-sectional study analyzed censuses of live emergency department and inpatient discharges for 11 US states from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2012, as well as Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project national live discharge samples for January 1 to December 31, 2012, and January 1 to December 31, 2016, and corresponding Multiple Cause of Death census data. Censuses or national samples of all medically identified drug poisonings that were deliberately self-inflicted or of undetermined intent were identified using diagnosis and external cause codes. Data were analyzed from June 2019 to January 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures:Distribution of drug classes involved in suicidal overdoses. Logistic regressions on the state data were used to calculate the odds and relative risk (RR) of death for a suicide act that involved a drug class vs similar acts excluding that class. Results:Among 421 466 drug poisoning suicidal acts resulting in 21 594 deaths, 19.6% to 22.5% of the suicidal drug overdoses involved benzodiazepines, and 15.4% to 17.3% involved opioids (46.2% men, 53.8% women, and <0.01% missing; mean age, 36.4 years). Opioids were most commonly identified in fatal suicide poisonings (33.3%-47.8%). The greatest RR for poisoning suicide completion was opioids (5.20 times the mean for suicide acts that did not involve opioids; 95% CI, 4.86-5.57; sensitivity analysis range, 3.99-6.86), followed by barbiturates (RR, 4.29; 95% CI, 3.35-5.45), antidepressants (RR, 3.22; 95% CI, 2.95-3.52), antidiabetics (RR, 2.57; 95% CI, 1.94-3.41), and alcohol (conservatively, because 30% of death certifiers do not test for alcohol; RR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.84-2.26). The updated toxin diagnosis coding in International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, used to code the 2016 data revealed that calcium channel blockers also had a high RR of 2.24 (95% CI, 1.89-2.61). Translated to attributable fractions, approximately 81% of suicides involving opioids would not have been fatal absent opioids. Similarly, 34% of alcohol-involved suicide deaths were alcohol attributable. Conclusions and Relevance:These findings suggest that preventing access to lethal means for patients at risk for suicide should extend to drugs with high case fatality rates. Blister packing and securely storing lethal drugs seems advisable.
| S-EPMC7090840 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Prescription drug monitoring program are designed to reduce harms from prescription opioids; however, little is known about what populations benefit the most from these programs. We investigated how the relation between implementation of online prescription drug monitoring programs and rates of hospitalizations related to prescription opioids and heroin overdose changed over time, and varied across county levels of poverty and unemployment, and levels of medical access to opioids. METHODS:Ecologic county-level, spatiotemporal study, including 990 counties within 16 states, in 2001-2014. We modeled overdose counts using Bayesian hierarchical Poisson models. We defined medical access to opioids as the county-level rate of hospital discharges for noncancer pain conditions. RESULTS:In 2010-2014, online prescription drug monitoring programs were associated with lower rates of prescription opioid-related hospitalizations (rate ratio 2014 = 0.74; 95% credible interval = 0.69, 0.80). The association between online prescription drug monitoring programs and heroin-related hospitalization was also negative but tended to increase in later years. Counties with lower rates of noncancer pain conditions experienced a lower decrease in prescription opioid overdose and a faster increase in heroin overdoses. No differences were observed across different county levels of poverty and unemployment. CONCLUSIONS:Areas with lower levels of noncancer pain conditions experienced the smallest decrease in prescription opioid overdose and the faster increase in heroin overdose following implementation of online prescription drug monitoring programs. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that prescription drug monitoring programs are most effective in areas where people are likely to access opioids through medical providers.
| S-EPMC6437666 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Drug overdoses are a national and global epidemic. However, while overdoses are inextricably linked to social, demographic, and geographical determinants, geospatial patterns of drug-related admissions and overdoses at the neighborhood level remain poorly studied. The objective of this paper is to investigate spatial distributions of patients admitted for drug-related admissions and overdoses from a large, urban, tertiary care center using electronic health record data. Additionally, these spatial distributions were adjusted for a validated socioeconomic index called the Area Deprivation Index (ADI). We showed spatial heterogeneity in patients admitted for opioid, amphetamine, and psychostimulant-related diagnoses and overdoses. While ADI was associated with drug-related admissions, it did not correct for spatial variations and could not account alone for this spatial heterogeneity.
| S-EPMC7704893 | biostudies-literature
Project description:AimsTo examine how weekly rates of emergency department (ED) visits for drug overdoses changed among individuals with a recent history of homelessness (IRHH) and their housed counterparts during the pre-pandemic, peak, and re-opening periods of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, using corresponding weeks in 2019 as a historical control.DesignPopulation-based retrospective cohort study conducted between September 30, 2018 and September 26, 2020.SettingOntario, Canada.ParticipantsA total of 38 617 IRHH, 15 022 369 housed individuals, and 186 858 low-income housed individuals matched on age, sex, rurality, and comorbidity burden.MeasurementsED visits for drug overdoses of accidental and undetermined intent.FindingsAverage rates of ED visits for drug overdoses between January and September 2020 were higher among IRHH compared with housed individuals (rate ratio [RR], 148.0; 95% CI, 142.7-153.5) and matched housed individuals (RR, 22.3; 95% CI, 20.7-24.0). ED visits for drug overdoses decreased across all groups by ~20% during the peak period (March 17 to June 16, 2020) compared with corresponding weeks in 2019. During the re-opening period (June 17 to September 26, 2020), rates of ED visits for drug overdoses were significantly higher among IRHH (RR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.44-1.69), matched housed individuals (RR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.08-1.46), and housed individuals relative to equivalent weeks in 2019 (RR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.11). The relative increase in drug overdose ED visits among IRHH was larger compared with both matched housed individuals (P = 0.01 for interaction between group and year) and housed individuals (P < 0.001) during this period.ConclusionsRecently homeless individuals in Ontario, Canada experienced disproportionate increases in ED visits for drug overdoses during the re-opening period of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with housed people.
| S-EPMC9111216 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC7684517 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The initial marketing of the opioid analgesic OxyContin in 1996 increased fatal drug overdoses over the course of the opioid epidemic in the US. However, the long-term impacts of this marketing on complications of injection drug use, a key feature of the ongoing crisis, are undetermined. This study evaluated the effects of exposure to initial OxyContin marketing on the long-term trajectories of injection drug use-related outcomes in the US. We used a difference-in-differences analysis to compare outcomes in states with high versus low exposure to initial marketing before and after the 2010 reformulation of OxyContin, which facilitated the use of illicit drugs and the spread of infectious disease. Exposure to initial OxyContin marketing statistically significantly increased rates of fatal synthetic opioid-related overdoses; acute hepatitis A, B, and C viral infections; and infective endocarditis-related deaths. The greatest burden of adverse long-term outcomes has been in states that experienced the highest exposure to early OxyContin marketing. Our findings indicate that OxyContin marketing decisions from the mid-1990s increased viral and bacterial complications of injection drug use and illicit opioid-related overdose deaths twenty-five years later.
| S-EPMC10521060 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundPrescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are a key component of the president's Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Plan to prevent opioid overdoses in the United States.PurposeTo examine whether PDMP implementation is associated with changes in nonfatal and fatal overdoses; identify features of programs differentially associated with those outcomes; and investigate any potential unintended consequences of the programs.Data sourcesEligible publications from MEDLINE, Current Contents Connect (Clarivate Analytics), Science Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics), Social Sciences Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics), and ProQuest Dissertations indexed through 27 December 2017 and additional studies from reference lists.Study selectionObservational studies (published in English) from U.S. states that examined an association between PDMP implementation and nonfatal or fatal overdoses.Data extraction2 investigators independently extracted data from and rated the risk of bias (ROB) of studies by using established criteria. Consensus determinations involving all investigators were used to grade strength of evidence for each intervention.Data synthesisOf 2661 records, 17 articles met the inclusion criteria. These articles examined PDMP implementation only (n = 8), program features only (n = 2), PDMP implementation and program features (n = 5), PDMP implementation with mandated provider review combined with pain clinic laws (n = 1), and PDMP robustness (n = 1). Evidence from 3 studies was insufficient to draw conclusions regarding an association between PDMP implementation and nonfatal overdoses. Low-strength evidence from 10 studies suggested a reduction in fatal overdoses with PDMP implementation. Program features associated with a decrease in overdose deaths included mandatory provider review, provider authorization to access PDMP data, frequency of reports, and monitoring of nonscheduled drugs. Three of 6 studies found an increase in heroin overdoses after PDMP implementation.LimitationFew studies, high ROB, and heterogeneous analytic methods and outcome measurement.ConclusionEvidence that PDMP implementation either increases or decreases nonfatal or fatal overdoses is largely insufficient, as is evidence regarding positive associations between specific administrative features and successful programs. Some evidence showed unintended consequences. Research is needed to identify a set of "best practices" and complementary initiatives to address these consequences.Primary funding sourceNational Institute on Drug Abuse and Bureau of Justice Assistance.
| S-EPMC6015770 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundBenzodiazepine-positive overdoses increased between 2019 and 2021 in Tennessee. We sought to determine the changes in the number and characteristics of prescription and illicit benzodiazepine-positive fatal drug overdoses during this period.Materials and methodsA statewide study was conducted to determine changes in the number and characteristics of benzodiazepine-positive drug overdose decedents using 2019-2021 data from the Tennessee State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System. The analyses were limited to Tennessee residents aged ≥ 18 years. A benzodiazepine-positive overdose was defined as any benzodiazepine on toxicology, regardless of the presence of other substances. Frequencies were generated to compare demographics, circumstances, prescription history, and toxicology between 2019 and 2021 for illicit and prescription benzodiazepine-positive fatal overdoses.ResultsBetween 2019 and 2021, 1666 benzodiazepine-positive unintentional or undetermined fatal drug overdoses out of 5916 total overdoses that occurred among adult Tennessee residents with available toxicological information. Prescription benzodiazepines were identified in 80.7% of deaths, whereas illicit benzodiazepines were identified in 12.0% of deaths. Many decedents had an anxiety disorder (45.5%), while over half of all decedents had a history of substance use disorder (52.3%). Most benzodiazepine-positive overdoses involved fentanyl (71.3%).ConclusionsThis analysis can inform local and regional public health workers to implement focused prevention and intervention efforts for people with co-occurring mental health conditions and substance use disorders to curb overdose epidemics among persons using benzodiazepines in Tennessee. Public health campaigns should focus on educating people on appropriate prescription medication use and the dangers of obtaining substances illicitly. Given the high proportion of opioids in this population, further education also is needed on the dangers of polysubstance drug use. The differences between prescription and illicit benzodiazepine-positive fatal overdoses indicate the need to develop substance-specific prevention and treatment strategies.
| S-EPMC10836290 | biostudies-literature