Opioid use can be associated with adverse events in patients with COPD, reports Physician’s Briefing.
Nicholas Vozoris, M.D., a respirologist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, and colleagues examined data from 149,093 COPD patients, aged 66 and older, in Canada.
The researchers found that new opioid use was associated with a 215 percent increase in ischemic heart disease-related mortality among long-term care patients compared to those not taking opioids. Among patients living at home, the difference was 83 percent. Two-thirds of the long-term care patients and 60 percent of the patients who lived at home were given a new opioid between April 2008 and March 2013, the researchers said.
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