ArticleZeitschrift fur Rheumatologie2021
Prescription of analgesics in patients with rheumatic diseases in Germany : A claims data analysis.
Article in Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review to estimate the prevalence of inflammatory rheumatic diseases in Germany.Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2024Pooled it
- [Systematic review to estimate the prevalence of inflammatory rheumatic diseases in Germany. German version].Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2023Pooled it
- Agranulocytosis associated with metamizole among EudraVigilance reports involving methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Real-World Utilization of Biologic and Targeted Synthetic Disease-Modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs in Psoriatic Arthritis and Axial Spondyloarthritis: Insights from Sweden and Germany.Advances in therapy · 2025Article
- Factors associated with long-term opioid use among patients with axial spondyloarthritis or psoriatic arthritis who initiate opioids.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Pharmacological pain management in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a narrative literature review.BMC medicine · 2025Review
- Analysis of the shorter drug survival times for Janus kinase inhibitors and interleukin-17 inhibitors compared with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors in a real-world cohort of axial spondyloarthritis patients - a retrospective analysis from the RHADAR network.Rheumatology international · 2024Article
- [With RheMIT rheumatology centers can participate in the German national database-Expansion of the long-term rheumatological documentation].Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2023Article
- Long-Term Opioid Therapy Among Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in the Community: A Lupus Midwest Network (LUMEN) Study.The Journal of rheumatology · 2023Article
- Interstitial lung disease in rheumatoid arthritis: incidence, prevalence and related drug prescriptions between 2007 and 2020.RMD open · 2023Article
- [Medications when travelling with underlying inflammatory rheumatic disease].Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the prescription frequency of analgesics in persons diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), axial spondylarthritis (axSpA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2019 using claims data.
methodsPersons ≥ 18 years insured in 2019 with a diagnosis of RA (M05, M06), axSpA (M45), PsA (M07.0-3) or SLE (M32.1,8,9) were included. Analgesics were identified by the anatomic therapeutic classification (ATC) system. Reported is the percentage of individuals with ≥ 1 analgesics prescription for the respective rheumatic diagnosis in 2019 and for opioids age-standardized in each of the years 2005-2019. In addition, the proportion of long-term opioid use (prescriptions in ≥ 3 consecutive quarter years) in 2006 and 2019 is compared.
resultsMetamizole (29-33%) was the most commonly prescribed analgesic. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID)/coxibs were prescribed from 35% (SLE) to 50% (axSpA). Of the patients 11-13% were prescribed weak and 6-8% strong opioids. From 2005 to 2019, the proportion of persons with an opioid prescription remained stable, with similar or slightly decreasing proportions of weak opioids and more frequent prescriptions of strong opioids. The proportion of long-term opioid prescriptions increased from 2006 to 2019 from 8.9% to 11.0% (RA), from 6.9% to 9.1% (axSPA), from 7.8% to 9.5% (PsA), and from 7.5% to 8.8% (SLE), corresponding to a 17-24% increase.
conclusionThe prescription of opioids for persons with inflammatory rheumatic diagnoses is not as high in Germany as in other countries; however, the proportion of long-term prescriptions has considerably increased. The frequent prescription of metamizole is conspicuous.
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