• Luis Fernando Valladales-Restrepo, Andrés Gaviria-Mendoza, Manuel Enrique Machado-Duque, Julio Andrés Prado-Echeverry, Jorge Luis Cortés-Navarro, and Jorge Enrique Machado-Alba.
• Grupo de Investigación en Farmacoepidemiología y Farmacovigilancia, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira-Audifarma S.A, Pereira, Colombia.
• Pain Pract. 2023 Apr 1; 23 (4): 359367359-367.

IntroductionChronic pain can trigger both physical and mental health complications. During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with chronic diseases have had reduced access to some medications.ObjectiveTo determine the pharmacological management of patients with chronic pain and its continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThis was a retrospective longitudinal study of the continuity of analgesic use in patients with chronic pain between September 1, 2019 and February 28, 2021 based on a drug dispensing database. Survival analysis was performed until the discontinuation of chronic analgesics.ResultsA total of 12,701 patients who were being treated for chronic pain were identified. Their median age was 70.3 years, and 74.4% were women. The pain of rheumatological origin was the most frequent etiology (46.1%); the most used medications were nonopioid analgesics (78.9%), pain modulators (24.8%) and opioid analgesics (23.3%). A total of 76.1% of the patients experienced interruptions in their management during the study period. The median time to the first interruption of treatment was 5.0 months (95% CI: 4.8-5.2). Those who were treated for oncological pain experienced a greater number of interruptions in their management.ConclusionsThe pharmacological management of patients with chronic pain is heterogeneous, and this real-world study showed that a high proportion of patients experienced an interruption of pain management during the 12 months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.© 2022 World Institute of Pain.

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