More Evidence That Opioid Policymakers Keep Aiming at the Wrong Target

Jeffrey A. SingerA new study released earlier this year adds more evidence to the mountains of evidence that policymakers trying to solve the overdose crisis have been aiming at the wrong target.Researchers from the Dartmouth University School of Medicine recently published in theAnnals of Surgery the results of a  prospective clinical trial of 221 opioid naïve surgical patients prescribed opioids at discharge and followed for one year after surgery. Eighty‐​eight percent of the patients had cancer‐​related operations. Their surgeons prescribed opioids for pain control when they discharged them home from the hospital. The researchers accessed the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to monitor the patients’ long‐​term opioid use.Their findings: 15.3 percent filled opioid prescriptions 3 –12 months after their initial surgery. Six percent of the time, it was because of pain related to the initial (“index”) operation, but 51 percent of the time, it was due to a new painful condition, and 40 percent from undergoing another surgery. The remaining 2.3 percent (five patients) fill ed opioid prescriptions one year later because of chronic pain due to recurrent cancer (two), a new medical condition (two), and a chronic abscess (one). Only one patient filled an opioid prescription 12 months post‐​hospital discharge for no specific reason. The researchers noted that patient s disposed of their leftover opioids at a high rate. They concluded:In a  g...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs