According to a latest study, even after overdosing on opioid medications, over nine out of 10 patients kept on getting prescriptions for the powerful painkillers. As a result many patients suffered another overdose.

Published on Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine, the findings, as per the study authors were ‘highly concerning’. The report examined overdoses, and they were serious enough that some patients were sent to emergency rooms or were admitted to hospitals. The patients must not have escaped the attention of their doctors.

However, the researchers surmised that it was may be exactly what has happened. The physician who prescribed opioid painkillers to patients following the overdose was the same as the one who wrote the prescription prior to the overdose, in 70% of the cases. This has supported the idea that the prescribers weren’t at all aware that something had gone wrong.

The study authors wrote that prescribing guidelines have clearly stated that opioids misuse and bad effects were compelling reasons to discontinue opioids. Most probably, if doctors were aware about the overdoses, they would have given a thought twice before they authorized refills.

The authors, headed by Dr. Marc Larochelle, who studies addiction issues at the Boston University School of Medicine, said, “Some prescribers may have been unaware that the opioid overdose occurred”.

In 2010, 16,651 deaths were blamed on prescription painkillers. Considering this figure, Larochelle along with his colleagues searched for ways to identify patients most vulnerable to a fatal overdose. A nonfatal overdose looked probable candidate.