Disproportionate longer-term opioid use among U.S. adults with mood disorders

Abstract: Adults with mood disorders frequently use prescription opioids. The factors associated with this increased use remain unclear. We used the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys from 2005 to 2011 to measure the association of mood disorders with new opioid use and the transition to longer-term opioid use for a variety of pain conditions before and after controlling for patient characteristics and clinical disability. We analyzed 33,450 adults with likely acute or potentially chronic pain conditions who were not using opioids at baseline. Among respondents with likely acute pain conditions, those with mood disorders initiated opioids more frequently for that pain condition compared with those without mood disorders (19.3%, vs 17.2%, P = 0.01). After initiation, they also transitioned to longer-term opioid therapy more frequently (11.7% vs 5.3%, P

Source: Pain - October 25, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research