The vast majority of patients who experience an opioid overdose continue to receive opioids to manage their pain, a new study has found. Perhaps not surprisingly, the risk for subsequent overdose in these patients is extremely high.
The study, which was published in Annals of Internal Medicine (2016;164:1-9), revealed that among a population of 2,848 commercially insured patients tracked between 2000 and 2012, 91% were dispensed opioids even after experiencing an overdose (over a median