Clinical and healthcare use outcomes after cessation of long term opioid treatment due to prescriber workforce exit: quasi-experimental difference-in-differences study.

The loss of a prescriber was associated with increased occurrences of discontinuation of long term opioid treatment and transient increases in adverse outcomes, such as suicide attempts, but not other outcomes, such as overdoses. Long term opioid treatment discontinuation may be associated with a temporary period of adverse health impacts after accounting for unobserved confounding.