ArticlePloS one2021
Association of prescription opioid use on mortality and hospital length of stay in the intensive care unit.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Associated prognostic impact of opioid use before Transcatheter aortic valve implantation - A Danish nationwide cohort study.International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2026Article
- Disparities and burden of illness among hospitalized cancer patients with opioid dependence.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2026Article
- Article
- Opioid Administration in Complex Ventilated Patients in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit.The Journal of surgical research · 2025Observational
- Article
- Patterns and Outcomes of Opioid Use Before and After Hospitalization for Critical Illness: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2025Observational
- Association between Substance Misuse and Outcomes in Critically III Patients with Pneumonia.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2023Article
- Trends and correlated outcomes in population-level prescription opioid and transdermal fentanyl use in Israel.Israel journal of health policy research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveSeveral studies show that chronic opioid dependence leads to higher in-hospital mortality, increased risk of hospital readmissions, and worse outcomes in trauma cases. However, the association of outpatient prescription opioid use on morbidity and mortality has not been adequately evaluated in a critical care setting. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is an association between chronic opioid use and mortality after an ICU admission.
designA single-center, longitudinal retrospective cohort study of all Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients admitted to a tertiary-care academic medical center from 2001 to 2012 using the MIMIC-III database.
settingMedical Information Mart for Intensive Care III database based in the United States. PATIENTS: Adult patients 18 years and older were included. Exclusion criteria comprised of patients who expired during their hospital stay or presented with overdose; patients with cancer, anoxic brain injury, non-prescription opioid use; or if an accurate medication reconciliation was unable to be obtained. Patients prescribed chronic opioids were compared with those who had not been prescribed opioids in the outpatient setting.
interventionsNone. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsThe final sample included a total of 22,385 patients, with 2,621 (11.7%) in the opioid group and 19,764 (88.3%) in the control group. After proceeding with bivariate analyses, statistically significant and clinically relevant differences were identified between opioid and non-opioid users in sex, length of hospital stay, and comorbidities. Opioid use was associated with increased mortality in both the 30-day and 1-year windows with a respective odds ratios of 1.81 (95% CI, 1.63-2.01; p<0.001) and 1.88 (95% CI, 1.77-1.99; p<0.001), respectively.
conclusionsChronic opioid usage was associated with increased hospital length of stay and increased mortality at both 30 days and 1 year after ICU admission. Knowledge of this will help providers make better choices in patient care and have a more informed risk-benefits discussion when prescribing opioids for chronic usage.
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