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Risk of opioid addiction remains low
USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Feb, 2008
Some four percent of patients prescribed opioid pain medications by primary care physicians abuse the drugs, but the risk of addiction is small compared with the alternative of continuous pain and suffering from chronic noncancer pain, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The most common pain diagnoses were degenerative arthritis, low back discomfort, migraines, neuropathy, and fibromyalgia. Patients were between 18 and 81 years old with a diagnosis of chronic pain.
The primary finding is that the frequency of opioid abuse in this population is 3.8%. Also, the study reports there was a 24% rate of positive toxicology tests in the opioid-abusing group for illicit drugs and significant underreporting of drug use. Forty-six percent of patients with positive toxicology screens denied illicit drug use even though they were guaranteed anonymity during the interviews. This finding confirms previous studies that patients with chronic pain often mislead physicians about illicit drug use.
Moreover, the data shows a high percentage of subjects that abuse opioids or other substances also engage in specific aberrant drug behaviors, such as sedating oneself, using opioids for nonpain reasons, increasing doses without authorization, and having felt intoxicated when using opioids. Previous studies have demonstrated that patients with a family or personal history of substance abuse are more likely to exhibit aberrant drug behaviors.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
