Loading...
Opioid-associated deaths, largely due to cardiac arrest, have dramatically increased over the last 20 years and are currently the leading cause of death in the U.S. among people aged 25 to 64. This increase began after The Joint Commission listed pain as the fifth vital sign in 2001. Opioid prescriptions spiked, and by 2012 there were 81 annual prescriptions per 100 people. This overview of what is and is not known about opioid-associated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest offers useful information to cardiologists.
Cardiac arrests caused by opioid overdose largely occur via respiratory depression. Thus, these arrests differ from sudden cardiac arrests not relat…