Follow Us On
Contact Us
info@ampainsoc.org847.375.4715
American Pain Society
4700 W Lake Ave
Glenview, IL 60025
| For immediate release November 16, 2010 |
Contact: Chuck Weber (847) 705-1802 |
Glenview, Ill, Nov. 16, 2010 — As physicians seek ways to assure that patients given pain medication prescriptions do not misuse the drugs or become addicted, a study published in The Journal of Pain offers valuable clues regarding behavioral patterns linked with higher risk for aberrant drug behavior.
In the United States, rates of opioid misuse have increased since the 1990s. Eighteen percent of misused analgesic medications are legitimately prescribed and 81 percent are provided by friends or relatives for whom they were originally prescribed.
Physicians are becoming increasingly concerned about medication abuse and many are hesitant to prescribe opioid analgesics, especially to pain patients with past histories of substance abuse or psychological disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Therefore, to help doctors identify patients at higher risk for prescription drug abuse, the authors examined the characteristics of individuals with lifetime prescription drug use disorder (PDUD).
For the study, the authors recruited participants among primary care patients in Boston with chronic pain. After evaluations of screening questionnaires, 597 patients participated. The researchers examined factors that would be associated with PDUD and substance use disorders (SUD). Examples are smoking, alcohol use, family history of substance abuse and experience with domestic violence.
Results showed there were seven patient characteristics independently associated with PDUD compared to patients without lifetime SUD. They are: time spent in jail, high degree of pain-related limitations, smoking, family history of substance abuse, white race, male gender and PTSD. The authors noted that smoking, for example, has high comorbidity with alcohol abuse and illegal drug dependence. Therefore, patients with propensities to addiction, evidenced by smoking, are at higher risk to abuse prescription drugs.
The authors concluded their data suggest that physicians treating patients with pain should perform assessments for substance use disorder. Potential screening questions should probe for current smoking, family history of alcohol and drug abuse and time spent in jail. Evaluations for pain disability and PTSD could be additional assessment tools to help identify pain patients at high risk for PDUD.
Based in Glenview, Ill., the American Pain Society (APS) is a multidisciplinary community that brings together a diverse group of scientists, clinicians and other professionals to increase the knowledge of pain and transform public policy and clinical practice to reduce pain-related suffering. APS was founded in 1978 with 510 charter members. From the outset, the group was conceived as a multidisciplinary organization. APS has enjoyed solid growth since its early days and today has approximately 3,200 members. The Board of Directors includes physicians, nurses, psychologists, basic scientists, pharmacists, policy analysts and more.
