Within the first year of a nonfatal opioid overdose, substance use–associated disease accounted for over one-fourth of deaths (26.2%), followed by diseases of the circulatory system (13.2%) and cancer (10.3%), according to new research.
The study, which appears in JAMA Psychiatry (2018 Jun 20. [Epub ahead of print]), involved patients aged 18 to 64 years who were Medicaid beneficiaries between 2001 and 2007.
The all-cause standardized mortality ratio was particularly high in young adults