Opioid-prescribing patterns for pediatric patients in the United States.
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The opioid crisis in America affects both adults and children. However, knowledge about the epidemiology of the opioid crisis, opioid prescribing patterns, and the link between opioid prescribing and problematic opioid behaviors remain limited. Thus, children are often excluded from health care policies and guidelines aimed at curbing the opioid crises. The primary aim of this topical review is to provide a brief overview of the opioid crises affecting children, followed by a synopsis of recent research on opioid prescribing patterns and data on the links between legitimate opioid use and risk for problematic opioid use behaviors. METHODS: This is a narrative review. RESULTS: Opioid misuse is a public health crisis facing children and adolescents in the United States and serves as a key antecedent for other problematic opioid behaviors, including opioid use disorder, heroin use, and opioid overdose. Furthermore, the United States experienced a significant increase in opioid prescribing to children and adolescents as compared with prescribing rates before the year 2000. Yet, data on the associations between opioid prescribing patterns and risk for problematic opioid use remains limited. DISCUSSION: There exist an urgent need to identify adolescents at increased risk for problematic opioid use behaviors following a receipt of medically prescribed opioids. The article closes with some general guidelines that providers may follow to reduce the risk of opioids in pediatric patients.
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We could not entirely rule out confounding from characteristics of analgesia indications (eg, injury severity, pain-related impairment and distress) that may differentiate opioid recipients from NSAID recipients and co-twins and other multiple birth individuals.
“we could not entirely rule out confounding from characteristics of analgesia indications (eg, injury severity, pain-related impairment and distress) that may differentiate opioid recipients from NSAID recipients and co-twins and other multiple birth individuals.”
From Association of opioid prescription initiation during adolescence and young adulthood with subsequent substance-related morbidity (2020) · cites this paper as [31]
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- Authors
- Groenewald, C. B.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Groenewald, Cornelius B.
- Venue
- The Clinical Journal of Pain
- Published
- 2019-06
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 515-520
- ISSN
- 0749-8047 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6782052
- OpenAlex
- W2939156752
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 4.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Clinical Journal of Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K23HL138155)
- 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 › Surgery › Anesthesia and Pain Management
- Keywords
- opioid prescribing, pediatric patients, opioid epidemic, opioid misuse, problematic opioid use, opioid use disorder, heroin use, opioid overdose, adolescents, prescribing patterns, opioid prescribing guidelines
- MeSH terms
- Opioid Epidemic, Adolescent, Analgesics, Opioid, Child, Humans, Drug Prescriptions, United States, Prescription Drug Misuse
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