Documented Pain Diagnoses in Adults Prescribed Opioids: Results From the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2006–2015
Authors: Tisamarie B. Sherry, Adrienne Sabety, Nicole Maestas
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2018)

Letters18 December 2018Documented Pain Diagnoses in Adults Prescribed Opioids: Results From the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2006–2015Tisamarie B. Sherry, MD, PhD, Adrienne Sabety, BA, and Nicole Maestas, MPP, PhDTisamarie B. Sherry, MD, PhDThe RAND Corporation and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (T.B.S.), Adrienne Sabety, BAHarvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (A.S.), and Nicole Maestas, MPP, PhDHarvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (N.M.)Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/M18-0644 SectionsSupplemental MaterialAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail Background: Medical use of opioids has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades (1, 2), far exceeding increases in the prevalence of pain (3–5). This discrepancy may reflect efforts to address undertreatment of pain but has raised concerns about the appropriateness of physicians' prescribing practices and whether patients' medical indications justify opioid therapy. We therefore examined the indications associated with opioid prescriptions in ambulatory care between 2006 and 2015 to determine the proportion of prescriptions written for conditions causing pain.Objective: To determine the percentage of opioid prescriptions with a documented medical indication between 2006 and 2015, and to identify ...References1. Sites BD, Beach ML, Davis MA. Increases in the use of prescription opioid analgesics and the lack of improvement in disability metrics among users. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2014;39:6-12. [PMID: 24310049] doi:10.1097/AAP.0000000000000022 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vital signs: overdoses of prescription opioid pain relievers—United States, 1999–2008. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2011;60:1487-92. [PMID: 22048730] MedlineGoogle Scholar3. Daubresse M, Chang HY, Yu Y, Viswanathan S, Shah ND, Stafford RS, et al. Ambulatory diagnosis and treatment of nonmalignant pain in the United States, 2000-2010. Med Care. 2013;51:870-8. [PMID: 24025657] doi:10.1097/MLR.0b013e3182a95d86 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Chang HY, Daubresse M, Kruszewski SP, Alexander GC. Prevalence and treatment of pain in EDs in the United States, 2000 to 2010. Am J Emerg Med. 2014;32:421-31. [PMID: 24560834] doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2014.01.015 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar5. Case A, Deaton A. Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015;112:15078-83. [PMID: 26575631] doi:10.1073/pnas.1518393112 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: The RAND Corporation and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (T.B.S.)Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (A.S.)Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (N.M.)Acknowledgment: The authors thank Kevin Friedman for excellent research assistance.Financial Support: By the National Institute on Aging (grant R01AG026290), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (grant DGE1144152 to Ms. Sabety), and a gift from Owen and Linda Robinson.Disclosures: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M18-0644.Reproducible Research Statement:Study protocol and statistical code: Available from Dr. Sherry (e-mail, [email protected]org). Data set: Available at www.cdc.gov/nchs/ahcd/datasets_documentation_related.htm.This article was published at Annals.org on 11 September 2018. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoDocumented Pain Diagnoses in Adults Prescribed Opioids Daniel B. Horton , Theresa Juliano , Matthew T. Taylor , and Tobias Gerhard Documented Pain Diagnoses in Adults Prescribed Opioids John Weiser Documented Pain Diagnoses in Adults Prescribed Opioids Tisamarie B. 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Horton, MD, MSCE, Theresa Juliano, BA, Matthew T. Taylor, BA, and Tobias Gerhard, BSPharm, PhDUse of Opioid Analgesics in Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain and Knee OsteoarthritisWhat factors contributed to the misconduct of health practitioners? An analysis of Australian cases involving the diversion and supply of pharmaceutical drugs for non‐medical use between 2010 and 2016Initial Opioid Prescriptions among U.S. Commercially Insured Patients, 2012–2017 18 December 2018Volume 169, Issue 12Page: 892-894KeywordsDisclosureInternational classification of diseases ninth revisionLower back painNeuropathic painOpioidsOutpatient clinicsOutpatientsPainPain managementResearch grants ePublished: 11 September 2018 Issue Published: 18 December 2018 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2018 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...