• W Häuser, T Schubert, N Scherbaum, and T Tölle.
• Department Internal Medicine 1, Klinikum Saarbrücken GmbH, Winterberg 1, 66119, Saarbrücken, Germany. whaeuser@klinikum-saarbruecken.de.
• Schmerz. 2020 May 1; 34 (Suppl 1): 8-15.

BackgroundOne major concern of long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) for chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) is the risk of abuse of prescribed opioids.ObjectiveTo examine the prevalence and predictors of opioid use-related hospitalizations and potential abuse of prescribed opioids by persons with LTOT for CNCP in a sample representative of the German statutory health insurance companies.MethodsRetrospective cross-sectional study in 2014. Anonymized German health claims database, including 4,028,618 insured individuals of 69 German statutory health insurances. Univariate logistic regression models to evaluate demographic and medical characteristics associated with hospital stays and a diagnosis of mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol, opioids, tranquilizers, multiple substances and intoxications by narcotic agents in insured individuals with CNCP receiving LTOT.ResultsThe prevalence of LTOT for CNCP was 0.8%; 9.9% of these insured individuals received high-dose LTOT (≥120 morphine equivalent mg/day). The 1‑year prevalence of hospital stays with a diagnosis of mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol, opioids, tranquilizers, multiple substances and intoxications by narcotic agents was 1.75% of persons with LTOT. These diagnoses were strongly associated with prescriptions of tranquilizers (odds ratio [OR] 3.63; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.03; 4.36) and moderately associated with diagnosis of depression (OR 2.52; 95% CI 2.12; 3.00) and slightly associated with diagnosis of somatoform pain disorder (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.56; 2.28) and high-dose LTOT (OR 1.81; 95% CI 1.44; 2.27).DiscussionThe study is in line with the recommendations of the German national guidelines on long-term opioid therapy of chronic non-cancer pain (LONTS) to avoid concomitant prescription of tranquilizers for CNCP and to carefully select and monitor patients with depression and somatoform pain disorder.

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