Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Chronic pain in the context of certain factors may be associated with potential for nonmedical prescription opioid use; however, identifying this risk can be challenging and complex. Several variables alone have been associated with non-prescribed opioid use, including depression, anxiety, pain interference, and trauma exposure. Prior research has often failed to integrate these assessments together, which is important as these factors may cluster together in important and complex ways. The current study aimed to identify classes of patients with chronic pain who have differential risk for use of nonmedical prescription opioid use, depression and anxiety, and pain severity, interference, and catastrophizing, and interpersonal violence exposure. ⋯ High-risk classes had either high levels of depression and anxiety, pain catastrophizing, and interpersonal violence exposure, or pain severity and interference. Future research should continue to explore these classes in large, diverse samples, and prospective study designs. Finally, results underscore that opioid use is complex, not easily identified by a single factor, and may be motivated by complex unmet clinical needs.
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To identify common opioid tapering trajectories among patients commencing opioid taper from long-term opioid therapy for chronic non-cancer pain and to examine patient-level characteristics associated with these different trajectories. ⋯ Those prescribed strong opioids and high doses appear to be less likely to complete tapering. Further studies are needed to evaluate the clinical outcomes associated with the identified trajectories.