One-Year Mortality 8.6 Percent After ED Visit for Opioid Overdose

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By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, Senior Medical Editor, B. Pharm. Last updated on May 14, 2026.

via HealthDay

THURSDAY, May 14, 2026 -- One-year mortality is 8.6 percent among individuals after an emergency department visit for an opioid overdose, according to a research letter published online May 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Robert A. Kleinman, M.D., from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, and colleagues examined one-year mortality among opioid overdose survivors in Ontario, Canada, to characterize postoverdose risk in the fentanyl era.

The cohort included 28,488 individuals with an emergency department visit for a nonfatal opioid overdose to 179 emergency departments. The researchers found that 8.6 percent of individuals died within one year (91.4 per 1,000 person-years); 63.7 percent of deaths were from opioid overdoses. Overall, 21.2 percent of individuals had at least one repeat opioid overdose during the one-year follow-up (252.5 per 1,000 person-years). Individuals with a prior opioid overdose in the preceding five years had particularly elevated one-year mortality (11.5 percent; 123.6 per 1,000 person-years). Incidence rates were highest immediately after discharge, with 0.6 percent of individuals dying and 2.4 percent experiencing a repeat opioid overdose within seven days of discharge. Within 30 days, 1.6 and 5.6 percent of individuals died and experienced a repeat overdose, respectively.

"This study identified high risks of death and repeat opioid overdose among survivors of nonfatal opioid overdose in the fentanyl era, with particularly elevated risks in the days immediately following emergency department discharge, underscoring the need for tailored clinical interventions for this high-risk population," the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

Source: HealthDay

Posted : 2026-05-15 02:41

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