Opioid Prescribing at Hospital Discharge Contributes to Chronic Opioid Use.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chronic opioid therapy for chronic pain treatment has increased. Hospital physicians, including hospitalists and medical/surgical resident physicians, care for many hospitalized patients, yet little is known about opioid prescribing at hospital discharge and future chronic opioid use.

Objective

We aimed to characterize opioid prescribing at hospital discharge among 'opioid naïve' patients. Opioid naïve patients had not filled an opioid prescription at an affiliated pharmacy 1 year preceding their hospital discharge. We also set out to quantify the risk of chronic opioid use and opioid refills 1 year post discharge among opioid naïve patients with and without opioid receipt at discharge.

Design

This was a retrospective cohort study.

Participants

From 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011, 6,689 opioid naïve patients were discharged from a safety-net hospital.

Main measure

Chronic opioid use 1 year post discharge.

Key results

Twenty-five percent of opioid naïve patients (n?=?1,688) had opioid receipt within 72 hours of discharge. Patients with opioid receipt were more likely to have diagnoses including neoplasm (6.3% versus 3.5%, p?ConclusionOpioid receipt at hospital discharge among opioid naïve patients increased future chronic opioid use. Physicians should inform patients of this risk prior to prescribing opioids at discharge.

SUBMITTER: Calcaterra SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4835366 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature