Table 3.
Mortality according to underlying cause of death.
| Anticonvulsant or Cyclic Antidepressant (8,066 person-years follow-up) | Long-acting Opioid (11,070 person-years follow-up) | Adjusted Hazard Ratioa (95% CI) | Adjusted Risk Differencea,b (95% CI) | p | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deaths | Incidence/10,000 Person-Years | Deaths | Incidence/10,000 Person-Years | ||||
| All deaths | 87 | 107.9 | 185 | 167.1 | 1.64 (1.26–2.12) | 68.5 (28.2–120.7) | <.001 |
| Out-of-hospital deaths | 60 | 74.4 | 154 | 139.1 | 1.90 (1.40–2.58) | 67.1 (30.1–117.3) | <.001 |
| Unintentional overdose deathsc | 7 | 8.7 | 34 | 30.7 | 3.37 (1.47–7.70) | 20.6 (4.1–58.1) | 0.004 |
| Other causes of death | 53 | 65.7 | 120 | 108.4 | 1.72 (1.24–2.39) | 47.4 (15.7–91.4) | 0.001 |
| Cardiovascular | 36 | 44.6 | 79 | 71.4 | 1.65 (1.10–2.46) | 28.9 (4.6–65.3) | 0.015 |
| Respiratory | 3 | 3.7 | 10 | 9.0 | 3.00 (0.81–11.09) | 7.4 (−0.7–37.5) | 0.100 |
| Other Injury | 11 | 13.6 | 19 | 17.2 | 1.15 (0.54–2.47) | 2.1 (−6.3–20.0) | 0.716 |
| Other | 3 | 3.7 | 12 | 10.8 | 3.72 (1.04–13.30) | 10.1 (0.2–45.7) | 0.043 |
| Hospital Deaths | 27 | 33.5 | 31 | 28.0 | 1.00 (0.59–1.69) | 0.0 (−13.6–23.1) | 0.996 |
a
Adjusted for baseline propensity score decile and age and calendar year during followup.
b
Risk differences for the specific causes of death do not sum because the regression model parameters are estimated separately for each cause.
c
The cohort excluded patients with a diagnosis of or procedure for treatment of substance abuse other than nicotine or alcohol as well as those prescribed buprenorphine. Because such patients would plausibly have increased risk for overdose, overdose mortality in the study cohort is likely to be lower than that in a more general patient population.