Cited by 50Opioid Use Disorder TreatmentPain Management and Opioid UseSubstance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes

Characterizing pain and associated coping strategies in methadone and buprenorphine-maintained patients

Open access
Dunn, Kelly E., Finan, Patrick H., Tompkins, D. Andrew, Fingerhood, Michael, Strain, Eric C.·2015·Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Abstract

Background Chronic pain is common among patients receiving opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) for opioid use disorder. To aid development of treatment recommendations for coexisting pain and opioid use disorder, it is necessary to characterize pain treatment needs and assess whether needs differ as a function of OMT medication. Methods A point-prevalence survey assessing pain and engagement in coping strategies was administered to 179 methadone and buprenorphine-maintained patients. Results Forty-two percent of participants were categorized as having chronic pain. Methadone patients had greater severity of pain relative to buprenorphine patients, though both groups reported high levels of interference with daily activities, and participants with pain attended the emergency room more frequently relative to participants without pain. Only 2 coping strategies were being utilized by more than 50% of participants (over-the-counter medication, prayer). Conclusions Results indicate that pain among OMT patients is common, severe, and of significant impairment. Methadone patients reported greater severity pain, particularly worse pain in the past 24h, though interference from pain in daily activities did not vary as a function of OMT. Most participants with pain were utilizing few evidenced-based pain coping strategies. Increasing OMT patient access to additional pain treatment strategies is an opportunity for immediate intervention, and similarities across OMT type suggest interventions do not need to be customized to methadone vs. buprenorphine patients.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.10.018

Cites

44 of 44 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Dunn, K. E., Finan, P. H., Tompkins, D. A., Fingerhood, M., & Strain, E. C.
Affiliations
Johns Hopkins University (US)
Corresponding author
Dunn, Kelly E.
Venue
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-12
Volume
157
Pages
143-149
ISSN
0376-8716 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2109838101
Cited by
50
References
44
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2
FWCI
3.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Drug and Alcohol Dependence (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (4k24da023186-10)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (K24-DA023186, R21DA035327, K23DA029609, K23DA035915, R01DA035246)
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 › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
Keywords
chronic pain, opioid use disorder, opioid maintenance treatment, methadone, buprenorphine, pain coping, pain intensity, interference with daily activities, emergency department visits, over-the-counter drugs, prayer
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Analgesics, Opioid, Buprenorphine, Female, Humans, Male, Methadone, Middle Aged, Opioid-Related Disorders, Prevalence, Pain Threshold, Chronic Pain, Pain Management, Maintenance Chemotherapy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review