A recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that opiate naïve patients—patients without a history of opiate drug use—who were prescribed painkillers upon discharge from the Hospital were nearly five times more likely to become chronic opioid users after a year than patients that were not prescribed opioids.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reviewed the records of more than 6,600 opiate naïve patients prescribed opioids when they were discharged from the hospital. According to the study, of the 6,600 patients nearly 1,700—which is roughly 25%—obtained a refill within 72 hours of discharge. The study concluded that prescribing opiate pain medications at discharge carries a significant risk of future opiate addiction. The study can be found here:
[Opioid Prescribing at Hospital Discharge Contributes to Chronic Opioid Use](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-015-3539-4)
Researchers concluded that physicians should carefully screen patients and warn them of the risk of addiction. Study author Susan Calcaterra said, “[e]xisting data already available in electronic medical records could alert physicians about patient-specific risk factors for opioid abuse or chronic use.” She further explained that “[l]inking electronic medical records to prescription drug monitoring programs would allow physicians to verify opioid doses or other controlled substances patients are using.” In addition, study authors recommended that physicians warn their patients about the increased risk of addiction.
While discharging a patient with some painkillers may be an easy for physicians in the short term, this study indicates that when done without care it can cause long term problems. Indeed, the number of pharmaceutical opioid deaths have increased along with the physician’s use of opiate drugs for pain management. The common sense steps recommended by the authors of this study should help mitigate the risk addiction, and hopefully decrease the number of pharmaceutical opioid overdose deaths.
