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In an occasional column, NEJM Journal Watch Psychiatry editors comment briefly on review articles.
The role of opiate use in suicide rates. The reviewers examine the well-publicized links of opioid use and misuse to deaths from suicide and from unintentional overdose, as well as the psychosocial conditions contributing to “deaths of despair.”1 Although preventive approaches and interventions are thus far inadequate to dramatically reverse these trends or even meaningfully stem the tide, a variety of such approaches are available for implementation by individual clinicians or via public-health or institutional efforts. Promising strategies already being used and studied include early identification of risk factors; guidelines for prescribing …