Our study’s principal investigator Dr. Stefan Kertesz recently offered a popular blog post for Sensible Medicine on a new scientific paper arguing that prescription opioid reductions were likely to reduce suicides at the regional level. The new paper by authors at Columbia University suggested that analyzing prescriptions and suicides at the regional level will help clinicians better understand the risk of suicide for any particular individual. Dr. Kertesz criticizes the piece in an article titled “Suicide and Opioids: No Easy Answers, No Sweeping Conclusions”. Read it, or listen, here.

Georgia native Danny Elliott suffered a debilitating electrical accident causing intense chronic pain, leading Danny towards opioids as a form of pain management. Following the harsh crack-down on opioid prescriptions by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Danny and his wife Gretchen Elliott struggled to acquire the necessary medications to alleviate his pain, ultimately leading the couple to take their own lives to end their suffering. Read more here

The husband of CSI:OPIOIDs study advisor, CaSonya Richardson-Slone, had suffered complex injuries in a 2011 car accident. After completing a course of rehabilitation in California, the New York Times reports that his Kentucky pain clinic “cut his pain medications by more than half overnight”. He tried to remedy the prescription by calling and even showing up in his wheelchair. Still, he was told he wouldn’t receive any refills until an appointment six days away. In agony, he texted Sonya: “they denied script im done love you.” He died by suicide in a local park. Read more here (Behind Paywall). STATnews also covered Slone’s story here.