Opioid Prescribing at Hospital Discharge Contributes to Chronic Opioid Use
Open accessAbstract
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 < 0.001), acute pain (2.7% versus 1.0 %, p < 0.001), chronic pain at admission (12.1% versus 3.3%, p < 0.001) or surgery during their hospitalization (65.1% versus 18.4%, p < 0.001) compared to patients without opioid receipt. Patients with opioid receipt were less likely to have alcohol use disorders (15.7% versus 20.7%, p < 0.001) and mental health disorders (23.9% versus 31.4%, p < 0.001) compared to patients without opioid receipt. Chronic opioid use 1 year post discharge was more common among patients with opioid receipt (4.1% versus 1.3%, p < 0.0001) compared to patients without opioid receipt. Opioid receipt was associated with increased odds of chronic opioid use (AOR = 4.90, 95% CI 3.22-7.45) and greater subsequent opioid refills (AOR = 2.67, 95% CI 2.29-3.13) 1 year post discharge compared to no opioid receipt.Conclusion Opioid 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.
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Opioid receipt in the hospital is associated with a nearly fivefold increase in the odds of chronic opioid use 12 months after discharge.
“Further, opioid receipt in the hospital is associated with a nearly fivefold increase in the odds of chronic opioid use 12 months after discharge. 8”
From Randomized Controlled Trial of Brief Mindfulness Training and Hypnotic Suggestion for Acute Pain Relief in the Hospital Setting. (2017) · cites this paper as [8]
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References 89 · Cited by 236
- Authors
- Calcaterra, S. L., Yamashita, T. E., Min, S.-J., Keniston, A., Frank, J. W., & Binswanger, I. A.
- Affiliations
- Denver Health Medical Center (US)
- University of Colorado Anschutz (US)
- VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System (US)
- Kaiser Permanente (US)
- Corresponding author
- Calcaterra, Susan L.
- Venue
- Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Published
- 2015-11-09
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 478-485
- ISSN
- 0884-8734 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-1497
- PMC
- PMC4835366
- OpenAlex
- W2156074554
- Cited by
- 236
- References
- 89
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 8
- FWCI
- 18.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of General Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Opioid Use
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Geriatrics and Gerontology › Pharmaceutical Practices and Patient Outcomes
- Keywords
- opioid prescribing, hospital discharge, chronic opioid use, opioid-naive patients, opioid refills, chronic pain, safety-net hospitals, hospitalists, surgical patients, alcoholism, mental illness, post-discharge follow-up
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analgesics, Opioid, Colorado, Drug Administration Schedule, Female, Hospitalization, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Opioid-Related Disorders, Patient Discharge, Drug Prescriptions, Retrospective Studies, Young Adult, Chronic Pain
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