Opioid Treatment for Chronic Back Pain and Its Association with Addiction
Authors: Meredith Noble
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2007)

Letters4 September 2007Opioid Treatment for Chronic Back Pain and Its Association with AddictionMeredith Noble, MS and Karen Schoelles, MD, SMMeredith Noble, MSFrom ECRI Institute Evidence-based Practice Center and Health Technology Assessment Group, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462. and Karen Schoelles, MD, SMFrom ECRI Institute Evidence-based Practice Center and Health Technology Assessment Group, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-147-5-200709040-00018 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:The poor quality and limited generalizability of the 9 studies included in Martell and colleagues' (1) assessment of substance abuse or addiction prevalence among patients with chronic back pain limits the applicability of their findings to clinical practice. The authors acknowledge some of these limitations in their paper. We will draw attention to additional problems and propose an alternative method for estimating abuse or addiction risk among individuals taking opioids for chronic back pain.First, many of the studies determined prevalence of substance abuse or addiction in populations that are likely to have higher rates than the ...References1. Martell BA, O'Connor PG, Kerns RD, Becker WC, Morales KH, Kosten TR, et al. Systematic review: opioid treatment for chronic back pain: prevalence, efficacy, and association with addiction. Ann Intern Med. 2007;146:116-27. [PMID: 17227935] LinkGoogle Scholar2. Brown RL, Patterson JJ, Rounds LA, Papasouliotis O. Substance abuse among patients with chronic back pain. J Fam Pract. 1996;43:152-60. [PMID: 8708625] MedlineGoogle Scholar3. Polatin PB, Kinney RK, Gatchel RJ, Lillo E, Mayer TG. Psychiatric illness and chronic low-back pain. The mind and the spine—which goes first? Spine. 1993;18:66-71. [PMID: 8434327] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Tennant F, Moll D, DePaulo V. Topical morphine for peripheral pain [Letter]. Lancet. 1993;342:1047-8. [PMID: 8105274] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From ECRI Institute Evidence-based Practice Center and Health Technology Assessment Group, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.Disclosures: None disclosed. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoSystematic Review: Opioid Treatment for Chronic Back Pain: Prevalence, Efficacy, and Association with Addiction Bridget A. Martell , Patrick G. O'Connor , Robert D. Kerns , William C. Becker , Knashawn H. Morales , Thomas R. Kosten , and David A. Fiellin Opioid Treatment for Chronic Back Pain and Its Association with Addiction Robert L. DuPont , Noni A. Graham , and Mark S. Gold Opioid Treatment for Chronic Back Pain and Its Association with Addiction Bridget A. Martell , William C. Becker , and David A. Fiellin Metrics Cited byDrug dependence in patients with chronic painA critique of Minozzi et al .'s pain relief and dependence systematic review, and authors' responseCombination therapy with transdermal buprenorphine and pregabalin for chronic low back painFunctional Selectivity at Opioid Receptors 4 September 2007Volume 147, Issue 5Page: 348-349KeywordsDrug abuseDrug addictionDrugsInformation storage and retrievalLower back painOpioid addictionOpioidsPopulation statisticsProspective studiesSubstance abuse ePublished: 4 September 2007 Issue Published: 4 September 2007 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2007 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...