Opioid Deaths: Trends, Biomarkers, and Potential Drug Interactions Revealed by Decision Tree Analyses.

ABSTRACT: Opioid abuse is now the primary cause of accidental deaths in the United States. Studies over several decades established the cyclical nature of abused drugs of choice, with a current resurgence of heroin abuse and, more recently, fentanyl's emergence as a major precipitant of drug-related deaths. To better understand abuse trends and to explore the potential lethality of specific drug-drug interactions, we conducted statistical analyses of forensic toxicological data from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office from 2012-2016. We observed clear changes in opioid abuse over this period, including the rapid emergence of fentanyl and its analogs as highly significant causes of lethality starting in 2014. We then used Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID)-based decision tree an

SUBMITTER: Saad MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6206231 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature