Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31402548›Full record

ArticlePharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2019

A comparison of opioid-involved fatalities captured in the National Poison Data System to data derived from US death certificate literal text.

Celeste A Mallama, James P Trinidad, Richard S Swain, Yueqin Zhao, Corinne Woods, Jana K McAninch

Abstract readComparative Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Nonfatal pediatric fentanyl exposures reported to US poison centers, 2015-2023.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Celeste A MallamaOffice of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3236-0206
James P TrinidadOffice of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
Richard S SwainOffice of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
Yueqin ZhaoOffice of Biostatistics, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
Corinne WoodsOffice of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-3385-3881
Jana K McAninchOffice of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.

Funding

FDA HHSIntramural FDA HHS FD999999
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThe purpose of the study is to describe and compare the number and characteristics of opioid-involved fatal cases captured in the National Poison Data System (NPDS) and in US death certificates.

methodsNPDS, which collects data on all calls to US poison control centers, and Drug-Involved Mortality (DIM), which combines information from literal text of US death certificates and National Vital Statistics Systems, were queried for opioid-involved fatal cases from 2010 to 2015. Characteristics of the two case series were compared.

resultsDIM contained 154 016 opioid-involved overdose deaths, and NPDS contained 2524 fatal opioid exposures, a ratio of 61:1. The number of opioid deaths remained stable in NPDS but increased in DIM over the 6-year period. On average, deaths involving opioids with higher mean dosage strength (in morphine milligram equivalents) per unit among dispensed prescriptions were more likely to be captured in DIM relative to NPDS, as compared with those with a lower mean dosage strength per unit. The increase in fentanyl-related deaths seen in DIM since 2013 was not observed in NPDS.

conclusionsNPDS is a valuable drug safety surveillance resource due to its timeliness and drug specificity. However, it captures only a small fraction of opioid-involved fatal poisonings, and comparisons with data derived from death certificate literal text indicate that caution is warranted in making inferences about opioid-involved fatality trends over time or comparisons across opioids.

Indexed as

Death CertificatesAdolescentAdultAnalgesics, OpioidChildChild, PreschoolDatabases, FactualData CollectionDrug OverdoseHumansInfantInfant, NewbornMaleMiddle AgedPharmacoepidemiologyPoison Control CentersAnalgesics, Opioidanalgesicsdrug overdoseepidemiologyopioidpharmacoepidemiologypostmarketingproduct surveillancevital statistics

Identifiers

PMID31402548
PMCPMC6945507

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.