Emerging data suggest that the frequency of long-term opioid use is high among individuals with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, which is of concern given the risks of opioid misuse. But is long-term opioid use really that high or is the situation more complicated?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Novella-Navarro, M. et al. Predictive model to identify multiple failure to biological therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Ther. Adv. Musculoskelet. Dis. https://doi.org/10.1177/1759720X221124028 (2022).
Waljee, J. F. & Brummett, C. M. Opioid prescribing for low back pain: what is the role of payers? JAMA Netw. Open 1, e180236 (2018).
Huang, Y.-T. et al. High frequency of long-term opioid use among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases initiating opioids for the first time. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 82, 1116–1117 (2023).
Shaheed, C. A., McLachlan, A. J. & Maher, C. G. Rethinking “long term” opioid therapy. BMJ 367, l6691 (2019).
Johnson, D. G. et al. Prescription quantity and duration predict progression from acute to chronic opioid use in opioid-naïve Medicaid patients. PLOS Digit. Health 1, e0000075 (2022).
Heins, S. E., Buttorff, C., Armstrong, C. & Pacula, R. L. Claims-based measures of prescription opioid utilization: A practical guide for researchers. Drug Alcohol Depend. 228, 109087 (2021).
Karmali, R. N. et al. Long-term opioid therapy definitions and predictors: A systematic review. Pharmacoepidemiol. Drug Saf. 29, 252–269 (2020).
Trouvin, A.-P., Berenbaum, F. & Perrot, S. The opioid epidemic: hel** rheumatologists prevent a crisis. RMD Open 5, e001029 (2019).
Els, C. et al. Adverse events associated with medium- and long-term use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain: an overview of Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. 10, CD012509 (2017).
Hamilton, M. et al. Barriers, facilitators, and resources to opioid deprescribing in primary care: experiences of general practitioners in Australia. Pain 163, e518–e526 (2022).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
S.P. has been involved in conferences and advisory boards for Grunenthal, UPSA, Sanofi and Pfizer. A.-P. T. declares no competing interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Perrot, S., Trouvin, AP. Re-thinking the perception of long-term opioid use in RMDs. Nat Rev Rheumatol 19, 678–679 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-023-01022-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-023-01022-3
- Springer Nature Limited