Long term opioid analgesic use is linked to increased risk of depression, study shows

The long term use of prescription opioid analgesics is associated with increased risk of new onset depression, shows an analysis of three large US healthcare databases.1

Researchers retrospectively analysed data on adults who had had opioids prescribed to treat pain for the first time in three separate US healthcare systems. They studied data on 70 997 patients from the Veterans Health Administration from 2000 to 2012, as well as 13 777 patients from Baylor Scott and White Health …