Lower Suicide Rates Among Opioid Dependent Patients on Treatment

Treating opioid use disorder with methadone or buprenorphine significantly reduces suicide rates among individuals with opioid dependence, reports a Scottish study.

Addressing opioid use disorder significantly decreases the high suicide rate, which is eight times greater than that of the general population, for those with opioid dependence.

A Scottish study from Glasgow Caledonian University involving over 45,000 patients treated with methadone or buprenorphine for opioid use disorder reported this significant finding in the journal Addiction ().

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Suicide Rates Among Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

There were 575 suicides among the group of 46,453 people with opioid use disorder, accounting for 1.2% of the group. Although every member of the group received an OAT (Opioid Agonist Therapy) prescription at some point between 2011 and 2020, some of those suicides occurred during periods when people were not in receipt of an OAT prescription. The study assumed that every suicide that occurred more than 60 days after the person received an OAT prescription would have happened while the person was not on drug treatment for opioid dependence.

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Higher Suicide Rates Among Those Not Receiving OAT

When researchers divided the 575 suicide deaths into those occurring while the person was on OAT versus those committed while the person was no longer on OAT, they found that the rate of suicide for people not on OAT was more than three times higher than the rate for people on OAT.

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Patient’s Access to Support Services

Lead author and researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University Rosalyn Fraser comments, “People with opioid dependence in Scotland are at much higher risk of suicide than the general population. However, there is strong evidence that suicide rates are lower among people receiving methadone or buprenorphine. OAT helps people access other support services, stabilizes drug use, and provides opportunities to build therapeutic relationships and reduce isolation. It’s very important to get people with opioid dependence into drug treatment to reduce their suicide risk.”

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Importance of Retention in Opioid Agonist Therapy

Senior author and Glasgow Caledonian University Professor in Public Health Andrew McAuley added, “In Scotland, trends in suicide in people who are opioid dependent declined during a period where overdose deaths more than doubled. Importantly, retention in opioid agonist treatment is a critical intervention both for suicide and opioid overdose prevention strategies.”

Reference:

Suicide in people prescribed opioid-agonist therapy in Scotland, United Kingdom, 2011–2020: A national retrospective cohort study - (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16680)

Source-Eurekalert