CNN – People over 65 with dementia were four times more likely to die within the first six months after starting to take an opioid for pain, and six times more likely to die If the opioid was a strong one, such as morphine, oxycodone or fentanyl, according to a new study.
Death was 11 times more likely to occur within the first two weeks after beginning any opioid prescription, according to the unpublished study, which was presented Tuesday at the 2023 Alzheimer’s International Conference in Amsterdam.
Maria Carrillo, chief medical officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, who was not involved in the study, said:
“Potent analgesics can affect impact automatic functions, such as heart rate, breathing and swallowing, and older individuals may already have challenges with those things.”
The opioid crisis in the United States is a national “public health emergency,” the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response reports.
“Over 33% of the group who started an opioid died within the 180-day period, compared to only 6.4% of those with dementia who were not on pain killers, the study found.”
Overdoses have skyrocketed, jumping from 47,600 in 2019 to over 80,000 in 2021, with no end in sight, according to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During that time frame the use of strong opioids — particularly transdermal formulations, which are applied to the skin — has become increasingly common among the elderly with dementia, said study lead author Dr. Christina Jensen-Dahm, a neurologist and senior research scientist at the Danish Dementia Research Centre at Rigshospitalet hospital in Cophenhagen, Denmark.
“Elderly with dementia are often frail and have a severe brain disorder and we suppose this is the reason why they cannot tolerate opioids,” Jensen-Dahm said in an email.
“We don’t assume that they are taking the drugs recreationally. We assume that they die because they, due to their brain disorder, are unable to tolerate opioids.”
