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The opioid crisis has prompted initiatives to reduce or stop opioid prescribing. However, evidence suggests excess overdose deaths, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and other adverse events after stopping opioids in patients who have received long-term opioid treatment. In this study, researchers evaluated 1.4 million U.S. Veterans Affairs patients (mean age, 60; 8% women) who received opioid analgesic prescriptions during 2013. About 57% of patients stopped taking opioids by the end of 2014.
After adjustment for numerous potential confounders, significant associations between length of opioid treatment and death due to overdose or suicide after stopping opioid treatment were observed: Hazard ratios were 1.7, 2.8, 4.0, and 6.8 for ≤30 days, …