'Alarmingly high' risk of death for people with opioid use disorder in general medical care
The results suggest very high rates of serious illness and death among patients with OUD in general medical care settings -- much higher than for those in addiction specialty clinics, according to by Yih-Ing Hser, PhD, of University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues. They write, "The alarmingly high morbidity and mortality among OUD patients revealed in the present study challenge healthcare systems to find new and innovative ways to expand evidence-based strategies for OUD in a variety of settings." Late Diagnosis and High Rates of Medical Problems for OUD Patients in Healthcare Network Using electronic health records from their university healthcare system, the researchers identified 2,576 adults with OUD. The patients, average age 41 years at first OUD diagnosis, had high rates of physical and mental health conditions and other types of substance use disorder. At four years of follow-up, 465 of the patients had died -- a rate of 18.1 percent. Mortality in...