Observational studyJournal of general internal medicine2023
Population-Based Opioid Prescribing and Overdose Deaths in the USA: an Observational Study.
Observational study in Journal of general internal medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence-based framework for identifying opioid use disorder in administrative data: A systematic review and methodological development study.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2026Pooled it
- Young adult polysubstance use trajectories and later non-prescribed opioid use and drug use disorder symptoms: A propensity score-matched analysis.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Death anxiety and death-related depression in opioid use disorder: relationships with suicidal ideation, impulsivity, and psychological resilience.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Adolescent outcomes of Post-operative opioid EXposure (APEX): Protocol for a multisite observational study.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2026Article
- Piloting wastewater-based monitoring on a university campus to inform public health surveillance and response for opioids and other high-risk substances.Journal of water and health · 2026Article
- Prescription opioid use and opioid use disorder among older adults with HIV in the USA from 2008 to 2021: a retrospective repeated cross-sectional study.The Lancet. Primary care · 2025Article
- Opioid-related mortality after occupational injury in Washington State: accounting for preinjury opioid use.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2024Article
- Deimplementation in the provision of opioid agonist treatment to achieve equity of care for people engaged in treatment: a qualitative study.Implementation science : IS · 2023Article
- An Exploratory Analysis of Differential Prescribing of High-Risk Opioids by Insurance Type Among Patients Seen by the Same Clinician.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Article
- Peripheral Nerve Stimulation in Painful Conditions of the Upper Extremity-An Overview.Biomedicines · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRising opioid-related death rates have prompted reductions of opioid prescribing, yet limited data exist on population-level associations between opioid prescribing and opioid-related deaths.
objectiveTo evaluate population-level associations between five opioid prescribing measures and opioid-related deaths.
designAn ecological panel analysis was performed using linear regression models with year and commuting zone fixed effects.
participantsPeople ≥10 years aggregated into 886 commuting zones, which are geographic regions collectively comprising the entire USA. MAIN MEASURES: Annual opioid prescriptions were measured with IQVIA Real World Longitudinal Prescription Data including 76.5% (2009) to 90.0% (2017) of US prescriptions. Prescription measures included opioid prescriptions per capita, percent of population with ≥1 opioid prescription, percent with high-dose prescription, percent with long-term prescription, and percent with opioid prescriptions from ≥3 prescribers. Outcomes were age- and sex-standardized associations of change in opioid prescriptions with change in deaths involving any opioids, synthetics other than methadone, heroin but not synthetics or methadone, and prescription opioids, but not other opioids. KEY
resultsChange in total regional opioid-related deaths was positively correlated with change in regional opioid prescriptions per capita (β=.110, p<.001), percent with ≥1 opioid prescription (β=.100, p=.001), and percent with high-dose prescription (β=.081, p<.001). Change in total regional deaths involving prescription opioids was positively correlated with change in all five opioid prescribing measures. Conversely, change in total regional deaths involving synthetic opioids was negatively correlated with change in percent with long-term opioid prescriptions and percent with ≥3 prescribers, but not for persons ≥45 years. Change in total regional deaths in heroin was not associated with change in any prescription measure.
conclusionsRegional decreases in opioid prescriptions were associated with declines in overdose deaths involving prescription opioids, but were also associated with increases in deaths involving synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl). Individual-level inferences are limited by the ecological nature of the analysis.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.