ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2017
Increases from 2002 to 2015 in prescription opioid overdose deaths in combination with other substances.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 138 citations in OpenAlex.
- An Evaluation of Opioid Use in Black Communities: A Rapid Review of the Literature.Harvard review of psychiatryPooled it
- Tropical Cyclone Exposure and Psychoactive Drug-Related Death Rates.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Incident benzodiazepine and Z-drug use and subsequent risk of alcohol- and drug-related problems: A nationwide matched cohort study with co-twin comparison.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Family Dynamics and Opioid Misuse Among Black Americans: The Mediating Role of Emotional Support.Couple & family psychology · 2025Article
- Evaluating the accuracy of surrogate markers for identifying opioid-associated out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.Resuscitation · 2025Article
- Comparative risk of opioid overdose in patients who initiated antibiotics for urinary tract infection while on long-term opioid therapy.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Innovative Development of Research Engagement Manual: Strategies to Enhance Recruitment and Retention of Black Individuals in Clinical Trials for Substance Use Disorders.Health equity · 2025Article
- Testing the test strips: laboratory performance of fentanyl test strips.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Opioid use disorder in two samples of the Lebanese population: scale validation and correlation with sleep and mood disorders.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Misuse of Prescription Opioids and Suicidal Behaviors Among Black Adolescents: Findings from the 2017 and 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2023Article
- Can cannabis kill? Characteristics of deaths following cannabis use in England (1998-2020).Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- An electroencephalogram biomarker of fentanyl drug effects.PNAS nexus · 2022Article
- Test-retest reliability of a new assessment to detect detailed temporal patterns of polysubstance use.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2022Article
- Trends in opioid overdose fatalities in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: Multi-drug mixtures, the African-American community and carfentanil.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2022Article
- Fentanyl, Heroin, and Cocaine Overdose Fatalities are Shifting to the Black Community: An Analysis of the State of Connecticut.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2022Article
- Longitudinal analysis of the prevalence and correlates of heavy episodic drinking and self-reported opioid use among a national cohort of patients with HIV.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Characterizing stimulant overdose: A qualitative study on perceptions and experiences of "overamping".The International journal on drug policy · 2022Article
- The effect of Medicaid expansion on state-level utilization of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder in the United States.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Article
- Bidirectional influence of heroin and cocaine escalation in persons with dual opioid and cocaine dependence diagnoses.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Alcohol-involved overdose deaths in US veterans.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrescription opioid (PO) overdose deaths increased sharply over the last decade. Changes in PO deaths in combination with other psychoactive substances may provide a partial explanation.
methodsPO deaths from the National Multiple-Cause-of-Death Files for 2002-03 (N=15,973) and 2014-15 (N=41,491) were analyzed. We calculated (1) changes in proportions of deaths in combination with benzodiazepines, antidepressants, heroin, alcohol, cocaine between the two periods, and (2) proportions of increase in deaths attributable to each substance among PO and synthetic opioids other than methadone (SO-M) deaths, by age, gender, race/ethnicity.
resultsBetween 2002-03 and 2014-15, PO deaths increased 2.6 times; SO-M deaths 5.6 times, especially for ages 18-34, males, African-Americans. For PO deaths, most frequent combinations at both periods were with benzodiazepines; for SO-M, benzodiazepines, antidepressants in 2002-03, heroin, benzodiazepines in 2014-15. The largest increases occurred in combination with heroin among all PO (4.6% to 15.4%, change ratio=3.3[95%CI=3.1-3.6]), but especially SO-M deaths (1.2% to 24.5%, change ratio=21.3[95%CI=15.0-30.3]). Deaths involving cocaine decreased among PO, increased among SO-M deaths. One-fifth of increased PO or SO-M deaths were attributable to any of the five substances. Increased PO deaths were equally attributable to benzodiazepines and heroin; deaths attributable to heroin were higher among ages 18-49, males, and non-Hispanic whites. Increased SO-M deaths were attributable mostly to heroin among all groups.
conclusionsIncreased PO overdose deaths over the last decade may be partially explained by increased deaths in combination with other psychoactive substances. Use of other substances should be considered in efforts toward reducing prescription opioid overdoses.
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