Veteran patients who receive long-term opioid prescriptions generally are treated with modest and stable medication dosages, according to an article in the November 22 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
“The long-term use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain of nonmalignant [noncancerous] origin has been generally supported by specialists in pain management as a less than ideal but often necessary and humane course of treatment,” according to background information in the article. Long-term opioid use can by complicated by problematic dose increases, drug dependency, and toxic effects.
John A. Hermos, M.D., from Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues analyzed pharmacy and clinical databases in order to determine characteristics of prescribing patterns and to identify potential high-risk opioid prescribing. Data on durations, doses, and dose changes of oxycodone/acetaminophen and concurrent use of long-acting opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and anticonvulsants were obtained from the Veterans Integrated Service Network for the New England region (VISN 1) from January 1998 through June 2001.