Postpartum Opioid prescriptions linked to risk of overdose, persistent use

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found that women who are prescribed opioids after childbirth have an increased risk of persistent opioid use or other serious opioid-related events, including overdose, in their first year postpartum period.This is true regardless of whether the woman had a vaginal delivery or a cesarean section.

Therisks increase with number of prescriptions filled and do not seem to differ substantially by route of delivery whether it is a vaginal delivery or a cesarean section.The new research has been published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to Sarah Osmundson, MD, MS, assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at VUMC and lead investigator for the study, increasing the number of postpartum opioid prescriptions also increased a woman's risk for experiencing a serious opioid-related event, including opioid-related death, persistent use and a diagnosis of opioid use disorder.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center studied 161,318 (209,215 births) women aged 15 to 44 years enrolled in Tennessee Medicaid (TennCare) who were discharged after childbirth between January 2007 and August 2014 to assess risk for SOREs associated with postpartum opioid prescribing after childbirth, including both vaginal and cesarean births.