Drug overdoses and suicides have been rising since 2000 and are major contributors to a recent decline in US life expectancy. The opioid crisis is largely to blame, with a record 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017. Suicide rates in 2016 have increased 30% from 1999. Researchers A. Case and A. Deaton have called these “deaths of despair.”
In a recently-released NIOSH study,
“
Suicide and drug‐related mortality following occupational injury
,”
published in the
American Journal of Industrial Medicine,
researchers found that workplace injury significantly raises a person’s risk of suicide or overdose death. Earlier studies have shown that injured workers have elevated rates of opioid use and depression. In fact, depression is among the most well-documented health consequences of workplace injury.
Injured workers often receive powerful prescription pain medication, including opioids. In one study, 42% of workers with back injuries were prescribed opioids within a year after injury. Approximately 16% of those prescribed opioids continued taking them for four quarters, with doses increasing substantially over time.
We are beginning to see a link between work injury, opioids, addiction and suicide. As the nation works to address the opioid crisis, improved working conditions, enhanced pain treatment, better treatment of substance use disorders and treatment of post-injury depression may substantially reduce deaths following workplace injuries.
