Patients Treated for Opioid Addiction in General Health System at Higher Risk of Death

Patients treated for an opioid use disorder in a general healthcare system instead of an addiction treatment center face a higher risk of death, a new study concludes.

Researchers at UCLA found patients treated for opioid addiction in primary care offices or hospitals are more than twice as likely to die than those treated in addiction treatment centers, according to HealthDay.

“The high rates of death among patients with opioid use disorder in a general health care system reported in this study suggest we need strategies to improve detection and treatment of this disorder in primary care settings,” study lead author Yih-Ing Hser said in a UCLA news release. She noted that as opioid addiction has grown in the United States, people with opioid use disorders are increasingly being treated in primary care provider offices.

The findings are published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.