Citation

Olfson M, Wall MM, Blanco C. J. Am. Med. Assoc. JAMA 2020; 323(14): 1410-1411.

Affiliation

National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland.

Comment On:

JAMA 2020;323(14):1409-1410.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jama.2020.1458

PMID

32286642

Abstract

In Reply Dr Nestadt raises 3 concerns regarding our analysis of trends in the intent of overdose deaths involving opioids.1 His first concern is that suicides may have been misclassified. A prior estimate assumed that because 26.5% of opioid overdose visits to the emergency department were classified as intentional, 20% to 30% of opioid overdose deaths were also intentional.2 Our findings, which were based on the National Vital Statistics System, revealed that in 2017, 4.0% of overdose deaths involving opioids were certified as suicides, 5.4% were certified as undetermined intent, and 90.6% were unintentional. One reason that a larger percentage of nonfatal than fatal opioid overdoses are intentional may be that intentional opioid overdoses are less often fatal than unintentional opioid overdoses ...

Language: en