A study published in Medical Care examined individual risk factors for unintentional prescription opioid overdose among the U.S. Medicaid population.
Researchers studied Medicaid-eligible people in Oklahoma who died. They identified those who had opioids recorded in cause of death and had more than one opioid prescription claim between Jan. 1, 2011 and June 30, 2016.
Of 639 people with fatal unintentional prescription opioid overdoses, 321 had more than one opioid prescription claim in the year before death. They matched these cases to 963 controls.
Compared with controls, those who died had significantly greater proportions of:
• Nonopioid substance use disorders
• Opioid abuse/dependence
• Hepatitis
• Gastrointestinal bleeding
• Trauma not involving motor vehicle accidents
• Nonopioid poisonings
• Mental illness disorders
Additionally, those who died had significantly higher daily morphine milligram equivalent doses and greater opioid/benzodiazepine overlap. Benzodiazepines were involved in 29.3 percent of deaths.