Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Mar 2010
Evidence-based pain management and palliative care in issue four for 2009 of The Cochrane Library.
The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. Issue 4 for 2009 contains 4027 complete reviews, 1906 protocols for reviews in production, and 11447 one-page summaries of systematic reviews published in the general medical literature. ⋯ The health technology assessment database contains over 7500 citations. This edition of the Library contains 90 new reviews, of which 19 have potential relevance for practitioners in pain and palliative medicine.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Mar 2010
Internet resources on managing chronic nonmalignant pain with opioids: the risks of addiction.
Chronic nonmalignant pain affects approximately 20% of the population. Internet resources for management of chronic pain have expanded in response to this growing population of chronic nonmalignant pain patients. ⋯ Discontinuation of opioid therapy needs to be adequately and appropriately addressed in patients with aberrant behavior and treated. This includes proper screening and monitoring and the use of emerging agents that will effectively control pain and are associated with a lower risk of abuse.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Mar 2010
Costs of opioid abuse and misuse determined from a Medicaid database.
This study determined the associations between opioid abuse, dependence, and poisonings on costs and comorbidities in the Medicaid population. Medicaid patients in the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) files from 2002 to 2003 with 12 months of continuous eligibility, age >or=12 years, and with an opioid abuse/dependence-related diagnosis, including opioid abuse, dependence, or poisoning, in 2002 (index date) were matched 3:1 to Medicaid patients with no such diagnosis (controls). Medical costs by claim type incurred 12 months post index date were compared as was the prevalence of select comorbidities. ⋯ Other substance abuse (odds ratio [OR] 9.4), hepatitis A, B, or C (OR 8.8), and poisonings (OR 8.5) were highly associated with a diagnoses for opioid abuse or dependence (P < .001). Medicaid opioid abuse/dependence patients had more comorbidities and higher medical costs in 2002-2003 than Medicaid control patients. Successful interventions to prevent opioid abuse and manage comorbidities could help to reduce costs associated with opioid abuse in the Medicaid population.