EAST LANSING, MI (MPRN)-- Research out of Michigan State University will look at a possible link between opioid overdose and suicide.
The research is connected to a current study looking at suicide prevention for people recently released from jail.
Dr. Jennifer Johnson is a researcher on the study. She says in monitoring subjects with a risk of suicide they began to see a trend.
“Overdose is probably, if I had to guess our number one method that we’re seeing in our sample for people who are thinking about or attempting suicide.”
Johnson says as many as 20 percent of overdoses could be attempted suicides.
She says doctors treating drug overdose patients should ask if the overdose was a suicide attempt because patients often don’t tell them.