Use of Opioid Overdose Deaths Reported in One State’s Criminal Justice Hospital and Prescription Databases to Identify Risk of Opioid Fatalities

摘要

The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic, with 45 000 opioid overdose deaths in 2017, most involving fentanyl and heroin. The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis has recommended data integration between state-based prescription drug monitoring programs and other systems to identify individuals who are at an elevated risk of overdose^. Linking prescription drug monitoring program data with other large databases can provide insight into how different service systems could have reached many individuals who fatally overdose-dand how risk rates for each subgroup compare with statewide means.