A study conducted by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has found that prescribing medical-grade opioids dramatically reduced the rates of deaths and overdoses for drug users living in B.C.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, is described as "the first known instance of a North American province or state providing clinical guidance to physicians and nurse practitioners for prescribing pharmaceutical alternatives to patients at risk of death from the toxic drug supply."
Researchers looked at anonymized health-care data of 5,882 people between March 2020 and August 2021, all of whom had opioid or stimulant use disorder.
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The analysis found the cohort who were prescribed pharmaceutical-grade opioids had a 61 per cent lower risk of death from any cause the following week, and was 55 per cent less likely to die of an overdose the following week.
It also showed the protective effect increased with the number of days opioid medications were accessed. People who received four or more days of prescription opioids were 91 per cent less likely to die from any cause, and 89 per cent less likely to die from overdose in the following week.
