Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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This study was designed to describe burden of illness and treatment patterns, and to examine the patient, physician, and care factors associated with the treatment choices of individuals receiving new prescriptions for fibromyalgia (FM). ⋯ Burden of illness was high for patients with FM, and treatment patterns were highly variable. Importantly, the treatments with the most evidence to support their use were not always the most frequently chosen.
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Pain medicine agreements are frequently recommended for use with high-risk patients on chronic opioid therapy. We assessed how consistently pain medicine agreements were used and whether patients were aware that they had signed a pain medicine agreement in a sample of HIV-infected adults prescribed chronic opioid treatment. ⋯ In a high-risk sample, clinicians were using agreements at a low rate, but were more likely to use them with patients at highest risk of misuse. Patients exhibited low awareness of whether they signed a pain medicine agreement.