Grant: Project Grant

Opioid-related overdose and death is one of the greatest public health crises in Canadian history, with approximately 3,800 deaths occurring nationally in 2019 alone. Importantly, many of these deaths are accidental. Drug interactions between opioids and other commonly prescribed drugs are one possible reason for accidental deaths related to opioids. Unfortunately, there have been very few studies of the dangers of combining opioids with drugs that are commonly used, even though studies show that 1 in 18 people who take opioids are prescribed a second non-opioid medication with the potential to cause death when combined with an opioid. In this grant, we will do a total of 6 studies to provide doctors and pharmacists new information regarding the risks of specific drug interactions between opioids and commonly prescribed drugs. To do this, we will use Ontario's large healthcare databases (pharmacy prescriptions, emergency department visits, hospital admissions, doctor visits, opioid deaths from coroner's data, and others) to answer the following questions: 1) In people who take fentanyl,what is the risk of overdose and death when combined with certain antibiotics and heart drugs; 2) In people who take oxycodone, what is the risk of overdose and death when combined with certain antibiotics and heart drugs and 3) In people who take hydromorphone, what is the risk of what is the risk of overdose and death when combined with certain antibiotics and heart drugs. Our team has extensive experience in doing this type of research, publishing many studies on drug interactions and drug safety that have been used by doctors, pharmacists and policy makers. Our proposed studies fill an important gap in the knowledge needed to ensure safe prescribing for people who take opioids, and will be applicable to the health of millions of people in Canada and worldwide who take these drugs.