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The epidemic of narcotic use has led to intensive efforts to prevent and treat opioid overdoses, but little is known about what happens to patients who overdose and do not die. Using Medicaid and cause-of-death databases from 2001 to 2007, investigators followed outcomes among 76,325 adults aged <65 in the year after a nonfatal opioid overdose.
In analyses controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity, overall mortality in the year following the overdose was 24 times higher than in the general population. The risks for subsequent death by suicide and for other drug use–associated deaths were increased by 26 and 132 times, respectively. Still, infectious diseases (HIV and hepatitis), respiratory and circulatory diseases, cirrhosis, and canc…