Article
Oncology
Sunny Jung Kim, Reuben P. P. Retnam, Arnethea L. L. Sutton, Megan C. C. Edmonds, Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Vanessa B. B. Sheppard
Summary: This study examined racial disparities in pain management, opioid prescriptions, symptom severity, and quality of life constructs in breast cancer survivors. The findings revealed racial differences in pain management and symptomatic outcomes, emphasizing the need for future research to understand the causes of these disparities.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Natasa Gisev, Luke Buizen, Ria E. Hopkins, Andrea L. Schaffer, Benjamin Daniels, Chrianna Bharat, Timothy Dobbins, Sarah Larney, Fiona Blyth, David C. Currow, Andrew Wilson, Sallie-Anne Pearson, Louisa Degenhardt
Summary: The objective of this population-based cohort study was to identify 5-year trajectories of prescription opioid use and examine the characteristics of each trajectory group. The results suggest that most individuals initiating treatment with prescription opioids had relatively low and time-limited exposure over a 5-year period. A small proportion of individuals had sustained or increasing use, and they were typically older with more comorbidities and higher use of psychotropic and other analgesic drugs.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Sarthak Mohanty, Max Shin, David Casper, Comron Saifi
Summary: This retrospective cohort study investigated the relationship between opioid prescriptions post-discharge and patient-reported pain outcomes. Results showed that patients receiving lower doses of opioids did not report worse pain relief at postoperative day 30 compared to those receiving higher doses, suggesting that 40 MME/day is sufficient for patient satisfaction.
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Gawon Cho, Virginia W. Chang
Summary: The study found that compared to individuals with normal weight, obese adults are more likely to receive prescription analgesics for back pain. However, the likelihood of receiving pain prescriptions is associated with weight status, rather than indicating undertreatment based on weight.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Review
Genetics & Heredity
Maria Carla Gerra, Cristina Dallabona, Lars Arendt-Nielsen
Summary: Prescription opioids are commonly used for chronic pain conditions, but long-term therapy can lead to risks of addiction and overdose. Studies have shown that opioid addiction and chronic pain conditions involve genetic and epigenetic alterations, but the contribution and mechanisms are not fully understood.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Alicia Agnoli, Anthony Jerant, Peter Franks
Summary: Surveillance data indicates that women are more commonly prescribed opioid analgesics than men, but this difference may be attributed to other factors such as sociodemographics and health status-related factors. Adjusting for nonnarcotic prescriptions reduced the significance of this relationship, suggesting that higher opioid prescription rates in women may be influenced by their overall greater use of health care.
JOURNAL OF WOMENS HEALTH
(2021)
Article
Oncology
Dinorah Martinez Tyson, Melody N. Chavez, Paige Lake, Ana Gutierrez, Peggie Sherry, Khary K. Rigg, Victoria K. Marshall, Heather Henderson, Barbara Lubrano di Ciccone, Sahana Rajasekhara, Smitha Pabbathi
Summary: The study explores the perceptions of opioid use and misuse in cancer survivorship within the context of the opioid epidemic. Cross-cutting themes include fear of addiction, the importance of communication and education around prescription opioid medication, preference for non-opioid alternatives, low risk perception of developing opioid use disorder among cancer survivors, and the impact of policies aiming at curbing the opioid epidemic on cancer survivors.
JOURNAL OF CANCER SURVIVORSHIP
(2021)
Review
Pediatrics
Frederique Rodieux, Anton Ivanyuk, Marie Besson, Jules Desmeules, Caroline F. Samer
Summary: This review evaluates the prescription of hydromorphone in children and finds a lack of pediatric pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data for this drug. There is no evidence to support the superiority of hydromorphone over morphine in terms of safety and efficacy in children.
FRONTIERS IN PEDIATRICS
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Susan L. Calcaterra, Yingbo Lou, Rachel M. Everhart, Lindsey E. Fish, Rebecca Hanratty
Summary: This study examined the association between in-clinic opioid administration and opioid receipt at discharge as well as progression to chronic opioid use in urgent care patients. The results showed that patients who received in-clinic opioids were more likely to receive opioids at discharge and had a higher risk of progressing to chronic opioid use.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Sharon Reif, Eric A. Lauer, Rachel Sayko Adams, Debra L. Brucker, Grant A. Ritter, Monika Mitra
Summary: The study found that adults with disabilities were more likely to use prescription opioids compared to those without disabilities, but the likelihood of opioid use disorder did not vary by disability status. Pain relief as the reason for last misuse was associated with an increased risk of prescription opioid use disorder.
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Surgery
Eleah D. Porter, Olivia A. Sacks, Niveditta Ramkumar, Richard J. Barth
Summary: This study surveyed adults in the United States who had received prescription opioids after surgery and found that misuse and diversion of opioids after surgery were common, with a misuse rate of up to one in three and a diversion rate of up to one in five. Factors such as working in healthcare, higher risk scores on opioid risk assessment tools, refilling prescriptions, and keeping leftover pills were associated with misuse and diversion.
JOURNAL OF SURGICAL RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Otorhinolaryngology
Hilary C. McCrary, Christopher I. Newberry, Geoffrey C. Casazza, Richard B. Cannon, Alexander L. Ramirez, Jeremy D. Meier
Summary: This study aimed to evaluate opioid prescription rates and use among patients undergoing hemithyroidectomy (HT) and total thyroidectomy (TT). The results showed that opioids are overprescribed after thyroid surgery, and avoiding overprescribing is crucial in mitigating the current opioid crisis.
HEAD AND NECK-JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENCES AND SPECIALTIES OF THE HEAD AND NECK
(2021)
Article
Otorhinolaryngology
Joann M. Butkus, Samiat Awosanya, Elizabeth Reilly Scott, Natalie Perlov, Paavali Hannikainen, Sruti Tekumalla, Maria Armache, Matthew Stewart, Thomas Willcox, Rebecca Chiffer
Summary: This study aimed to validate alternative pain management strategies that can reduce reliance on opioids for postoperative pain management in otology. The study randomized adult patients who underwent outpatient otologic surgery into two treatment groups. The results showed that the addition of patient education, acetaminophen, and naproxen to postoperative opioid prescriptions significantly reduced opioid consumption without affecting pain scores or complication rates.
OTOLARYNGOLOGY-HEAD AND NECK SURGERY
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Benjamin D. Hallowell, Laura C. Chambers, Luke Barre, Nancy Diao, Collette Onyejekwe, Alexandra Banks, Jeffery Bratberg, Heidi Weidele, Samara Viner-Brown, James McDonald
Summary: The study aimed to identify initial diagnoses associated with an elevated risk of chronic prescription opioid use. The results showed that patients with diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, diseases of the nervous system, and neoplasms had a higher likelihood of subsequent chronic prescription opioid use. Therefore, interventions and prescribing guidelines should focus on these specific types of diagnoses to reduce inappropriate opioid prescribing.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Belle Ngo, Jane M. Liebschutz, Debbie M. Cheng, Jonathan A. Colasanti, Jessica S. Merlin, Wendy S. Armstrong, Leah S. Forman, Marlene C. Lira, Jeffrey H. Samet, Carlos del Rio, Judith Tsui
Summary: Hazardous alcohol use among persons living with HIV on long-term opioid therapy was associated with higher pain interference and increased risk of opioid misuse, highlighting the importance of monitoring alcohol use in this population to prevent pain-related functional impairment and prescription opioid misuse.