Healio (8/3, Miller) reports, “Patients who had their opioids tapered after receiving stable, long-term, higher-dose opioid therapy were at a significantly increased risk for overdose and mental health crisis than those who did not have reduced doses,” investigators concluded in a “retrospective cohort study” that analyzed data on a “total of 113,618 hospital and” emergency department “patients with demographic and geographically diverse characteristics and 203,920 stable baseline periods.” The findings were published in JAMA.
Psychiatric News (8/3) reports investigators found that “post-tapering periods were associated with an adjusted incidence rate of 9.3 overdose events per 100 person-years compared with 5.5 events per 100 person-years in non-tapered periods.” In addition, tapering appeared to be tied to “an adjusted incidence rate of 7.6 mental health crisis events per 100 person-years compared with 3.3 events per 100 person-years in non-tapered periods.”
Related Links:
— “Opioid tapering significantly increases risk for overdose, mental health crisis “Janel Miller, Healio, July 3, 2021