ArticleBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2018
Predictors of persistent prescription opioid analgesic use among people without cancer in Australia.
Article in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of Intravenous Lidocaine for Pain Relief in the Emergency Department: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Incident benzodiazepine and Z-drug use and subsequent risk of alcohol- and drug-related problems: A nationwide matched cohort study with co-twin comparison.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- A national cohort study of long-term opioid prescription and sociodemographic and health care-related risk factors.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Trajectories of new opioid use after hip fracture surgery: a population-based cohort study.Pain reports · 2025Article
- Concurrent Prescribing of Opioids and Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs for Long-Term Use in Australian General Practice: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Using MedicineInsight.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2025Article
- Article
- Observational evidence linking psychotropic medicines to the dispensing of opioid agents in later life.Psychogeriatrics : the official journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society · 2024Observational
- Trajectories of prescription opioid tapering in patients with chronic non-cancer pain: a retrospective cohort study, 2015-2020.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Identifying Prescription-Opioid-Related Risks Using Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs' Algorithms and Clinical Screening Tools.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Predictors of problematic adult alcohol, cannabis, and other substance use: A longitudinal study of two samples.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- Five-Year Trajectories of Prescription Opioid Use.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Association of Reported Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) Adverse Drug Reactions With Opioid Prescribing After Total Joint Arthroplasty.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice · 2023Article
- What are the research priorities for optimising the safe and effective use of opioids in Australian general practice?Drug and alcohol review · 2023Article
- Sociocultural factors associated with persistent prescription opioid use (PPOU) among Puerto Rican adults in Massachusetts.PloS one · 2023Article
- Impact of Policy Interventions on Oxycodone Prescribing in Queensland, Australia: An Uncontrolled Interrupted Time Series Study.Drug safety · 2022Article
- Novel digital approaches to the assessment of problematic opioid use.BioData mining · 2022Review
- Opioid prescribing in general practice: an Australian cross-sectional survey.BMC primary care · 2022Article
- Article
- Opioid-related variables did not improve suicide risk prediction models in samples with mental health diagnoses.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsTo identify patterns of opioid analgesic use and determine predictors of persistent opioid use among people without cancer.
methodsA population-based cohort study of Australians initiating prescription opioids from July 2013 to December 2015 was conducted using data from a random 10% sample of people who accessed medicines through Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. A 12-month retrospective period was used to define opioid initiation, exclude people with cancer and determine comorbidities. Persistent use over 12 months since initiation was identified through group-based trajectory modelling. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for predictors of opioid persistence were estimated using logistic regression.
resultsThe cohort consisted of 431 963 people without cancer who initiated opioids. A total of 11 323 (2.6%) persistent opioid users were identified. Predictors of persistence included initiation with transdermal formulations (OR 4.2, 95% CI 3.9-4.5), or initiation with total oral morphine equivalents (OME) ≥ 750 mg (3.7, 3.3-4.1), having depression (1.6, 1.5-1.7) or psychotic illness (2.0, 1.9-2.2). Previous dispensing of paracetamol (2.0, 1.9-2.1), pregabalin (2.0, 1.8-2.1) and benzodiazepines (1.53, 1.4-1.6) predicted persistence. Compared to people aged 18-44 years, those ≥75 years were 2.5 (2.3-2.6) times more likely to be persistent users.
conclusionsPatient-specific characteristics (older age, prior history of mental health comorbidities and use of non-opioid analgesics) and prescriber choice of initial opioid (transdermal formulation and higher total OMEs) were found to strongly predict persistent use. This information may help prescribers target monitoring and early intervention efforts in order to prevent harms associated with the long-term use of opioids.
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