Our CSI:OPIOIDs research team was honored to present and learn from United Survivors (United Suicide Survivors International) and its chair Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsD, a leader and advocate in the prevention of suicide.

This evening was made unique by powerful observations from both Mark Flower and Jim Elliott. Mark is an advocate and Veteran who is in recovery and has lost friends suicide. Jim lost his brother Danny to suicide in November, 2022, after a physician’s office was closed down.

This presentation introduces why it’s so important to collect the stories of these losses. Powerful reflection from Jim and Mark begin at 13:50. View the discussion on Facebook here.

Members of our study team shared the CSI:OPIOIDs study design and “early insights” at the renowned “Rx and Illicit Drug Summit“ in Atlanta on April 1, 2024. The Summit draws on policymakers, patients, and clinicians. Competition to present is steep. Our presentation will focus primarily on insights learned through recruitment and outreach to the community of people living with pain and survival after suicide loss. 

Dr. Stefan Kertesz and April Hoge discuss the CSI:OPIOIDs study with Dr. Jay Joshi on the Daily Remedy podcast in an episode titled, Discussing patient suicides following forced tapering with the investigators of CSI:OPIOIDs.

Listen here or by clicking below!

Can we try to understand a suicide the way investigators look at a plane crash? In this video snippet from a recent talk, Dr. Kertesz introduces psychological autopsy, and shows how it might be applied to the death of former Nirvana lead, Kurt Cobain.

New article by Dr. Stefan Kertesz and University of Michigan’s Dr. Pooja Lagisetty. Please write our team at csiopioids@uabmc.edu if you would like a copy.

Today, the well-read Pain News Network website published “Why We Need to Study Suicides After Opioid Tapering”, a column by study investigator Dr. Stefan G. Kertesz. “Prescription opioid reductions are not always good, and not always bad,” writes Dr. Kertesz, but he then lays out why it’s important to study the suicides that have happened, and how people can spread the word. Check it out online here.

Dr. Kertesz and Dr. Varley discuss Understanding Suicides after Prescription Opioids are Stopped: The CSI:OPIOIDs Research Study with the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association (RSDSA). You can view the presentation on FaceBook and YouTube here. Both investigators are behind the world’s only study to directly examine suicides that happen after prescription opioid reduction or stoppage. Their presentation introduces why this study needs to be done, how it is being done, and how people from the pain and RSDSA communities could join the effort.

On August 16, 2023, CSI:OPIOIDs team members Stefan Kertesz (lead investigator), Kate Nicholson (National Pain Advocacy Center) and Thomas Joiner (Florida State University) discussed CSI:OPIOIDs for an audience of over 300 people working to improve the 988 Crisis Lifeline response. You can watch the video below and check out slides from Dr. Kertesz by clicking here.

Dr. Stefan Kertesz will speak to the Yale Program in the Addiction Medicine Grand Rounds about our study on Tuesday July 25, 2023 at 11am (CT) in a talk titled “Studying Suicides after Prescription Opioids are Stopped: Let’s Move Beyond Statistics with the CSI:OPIOIDs Research Study”.

Registration is free and open to the public for this online presentation. Link to register here.

In a new “On Becoming a Healer” podcast episode, Dr. Stefan Kertesz speaks with Dr. Saul Weiner about the risk of suicide with opioid reduction, and how that should affect the patient-doctor relationship. The episode summarizes a controversial new study, and then focuses on how the power dynamic between doctors and patients affects the way they speak with each other. On Becoming a Healer streams on podcast platforms like Apple & Spotify and also at this webpage.