ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2022
Long-term Psychoactive Medications, Polypharmacy, and Risk of Suicide and Unintended Overdose Death Among Midlife and Older Women Veterans.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- An Evidence Map of the Women Veterans' Health Literature, 2016 to 2023: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- Developing Longitudinal Post-Overdose Care: A Call to Action.Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology · 2026Article
- Associations of medical outcomes with substances involved in suicide attempt cases age 50 and older reported to U.S. Poison Centers, 2016-2023.Frontiers in public health · 2025Observational
- Suicide deaths and substance use in Spain between 2010 and 2022.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Central Nervous System-Active Prescriptions in Older Veterans: Trends in Prevalence, Prescribers, and High-risk Populations.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Article
- Use of Psychoactive Medications and Risk of Suicide in Late Life (75+): A Total Population Study.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2023Article
- Comorbidity and polypharmacy impact neurobehavioral symptoms and symptom validity failure among post-9/11 veterans with mild traumatic brain injury.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
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
backgroundRates of suicide and unintended overdose death are high among midlife and older women, yet there is paucity of data identifying women at greatest risk. Psychoactive medications, commonly prescribed and co-prescribed in this population, may serve as salient indicators of risk for these outcomes.
objectiveTo determine whether long-term psychoactive medications and psychoactive polypharmacy predict risk of suicide and unintended overdose death among midlife and older women Veterans above and beyond other recognized factors.
designLongitudinal cohort study
participantsWomen Veterans aged ≥ 50 with at least one Veterans Health Administration (VHA) clinical encounter in FY2012-2013. MAIN MEASURES: Long-term psychoactive medications (opioids, benzodiazepines, sedative-hypnotics, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and antiepileptics, prescribed for ≥ 90/180 days) and psychoactive polypharmacy (overlapping for ≥ 1 day) from VHA pharmacy records; suicide and unintended overdose death through December 31, 2018. KEY
resultsIn this national sample of 154,558 midlife and older women Veterans (mean age 63.4, SD 9.3 years), 130 died by suicide and 175 died from unintentional overdose over an average of 5.6 years. In fully adjusted models, long-term opioids (hazard ratio (HR) 2.01, 95% CI 1.21-3.35) and benzodiazepines (HR 2.99, 95% CI 1.82-4.91) were associated with death by suicide; opioids (HR 3.62, 95% CI 2.46-5.34), benzodiazepines (HR 2.77, 95% CI 1.73-4.42), sedative-hypnotics (HR 1.87, 95% CI 1.06-3.29), antidepressants (HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.03-2.12), antipsychotics (HR 1.81, 95% CI 1.02-3.22), and antiepileptics (HR 2.17, 95% CI 1.48-3.19) were associated with unintended overdose death. Women who were co-prescribed ≥ 3 psychoactive medications had over 2-fold increased risk of suicide (HR 2.83, 95% CI 1.65-4.84) and unintended overdose death (HR 2.60, 95% CI 1.72-3.94).
conclusionsLong-term psychoactive medications and psychoactive medication polypharmacy were important indicators of risk for death by suicide and death by unintended overdose among midlife and older women Veterans, even after accounting for psychiatric and substance use disorders.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.