“The United States continue to be in the midst of an unprecedented opioid epidemic post covid epidemic. More than 130 people a day die from opioid-related drug overdose according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).” What is of great concern to healthcare professionals is opioid overdose deaths may be suicides, according to research data. It is imperative that providers of opioid treatment recognize “interventions to prevent overdose deaths in suicidal people will differ from interventions targeted at accidental overdoses,” according to Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.“Most strategies for reducing opioid-overdose deaths do not include screening for suicide risk, nor do they address the need to tailor interventions for suicidal persons. Moreover, the inaccuracy of available data on the proportion of suicides among opioid-overdose deaths — which are frequently classified as “undetermined” if there is no documented history of depression or a suicide note — hinders deployment of appropriate prevention services.” (Oquendo and Volkow, 2018)

Goals/Objectives:

• To be aware of research that distinguishes overdose from suicide of opioid abusers.
• To identify cultural, socio-economical, and other contributing factors that lead to overdose of opioids with youth and adults.
• Key factors healthcare providers need to know about suicide by opioid and the necessity of exploring the intentionality of the act.
• To be familiar with types of opioids that are abused and how the body is impacted physically and psychologically.
• To identify specific assessment tools that are needed to assess individuals with opioid addiction problems (overdosed and suicidal abusers),
• To be aware of types of treatment models and interventions that are necessary when treating overdosed and suicidal individuals