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Impacts of an Opioid Safety Initiative on United States Veterans Undergoing Cancer Treatment. Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vitzthum, L. K., Nalawade, V., Riviere, P., Marar, M., Furnish, T., Lin, L. A., Thompson, R., Murphy, J. D. 2022

Abstract

There is limited research on how the opioid epidemic and consequent risk reduction policies have impacted pain management among cancer patients. The purpose of this study is to analyze how an Opioid Safety Initiative (OSI) implemented at the Veteran's Health Administration (VHA) affected opioid prescribing patterns and opioid-related toxicity.We performed an interrupted time series analysis of 42,064 opioid-naïve patients treated at the VHA for prostate, lung, breast, and colorectal cancer from 2011-2016. Segmented regression was used to evaluate the impact of the OSI on the incidence of any new opioid prescriptions, high-risk prescriptions, persistent use, and pain-related ED visits. We compared the cumulative incidence of adverse opioid events including an opioid related admission or diagnosis of misuse before and after the OSI. All statistical tests were 2-sided.The incidence of new opioid prescriptions was 26.7% (95% CI?=?25.0-28.4%) in 2011 and increased to 50.6% (95% CI?=?48.3-53.0%) by 2013 prior to OSI implementation (monthly rate of change: +3.3%, 95% CI?=?1.3-4.2%, p?

View details for DOI 10.1093/jnci/djac017

View details for PubMedID 35078240