Prescription bottled filled with pills surrounded by more of the same tablets
Opioid Crisis Concept: High angle view of a prescription bottled filled with pills surrounded by more of the same tablets.

CWRU researchers publish study on opioid overdose deaths

Publications & Presentations
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A team of Case Western Reserve University researchers conducted a study showing that most opioid overdose deaths involve three or more drugs. 

The study’s authors are:

  • Manreet Bhullar, alumnus and forensic epidemiologist for Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office; 
  • Thomas Gilson, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Pathology; and
  • Mendel Singer, associate professor in the Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences.

Published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, the study also showed that the use of both opioids and cocaine explains a four-fold increase in African Americans. Carfentanil, 5,000 times as potent as heroin, was four times as likely to be found in decedents who previously used illicit drugs.

Read the study, titled “Trends in Opioid Overdose Fatalities in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: Multi-drug Mixtures, the African American Community and Carfentanil.”