Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34189517›Full record

ArticleJournal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open2021

Incidence of opioid use disorder in the year after discharge from an emergency department encounter.

Brittany E Punches, Rachel M Ancona, Caroline E Freiermuth, Jennifer L Brown, Michael S Lyons

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Development and Validation of the Decisions to use Opioids Measure.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Patient motivators to use opioids for acute pain after emergency care.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2023
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Incidence of opioid use disorder in the year after discharge from an emergency department encounter.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Brittany E PunchesUniversity of Cincinnati College of Nursing Cincinnati Ohio USA.
Rachel M AnconaUniversity of Cincinnati College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine Cincinnati Ohio USA.
Caroline E FreiermuthUniversity of Cincinnati College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine Cincinnati Ohio USA.
Jennifer L BrownCenter for Addiction Research University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Cincinnati Ohio USA.
Michael S LyonsUniversity of Cincinnati College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine Cincinnati Ohio USA.
University of Cincinnati Medical Center · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTherapeutic opioid exposure is associated with long-term use. How much later use is due to opioid use disorder (OUD) and the incidence of OUD without preceding therapeutic exposure are unknown. We preliminarily explored the association between emergency department opioid prescriptions and subsequent OUD.

methodsThis retrospective cohort study queried electronic health records for discharged adult patients in the year before (2014) and after (2016) their first encounter in 2015 at either of 2 EDs in a Midwestern healthcare system. OUD was defined by diagnosis codes and prescription history. Patients with OUD history before the index encounter were excluded. We report OUD incidence within 1 year, with time to first indicator of OUD among those with a repeat health system encounter post index using a Cox proportional hazards model. Secondary outcomes were sources of therapeutic opioid exposure and frequency of risk factors associated with OUD among those who developed OUD.

resultsOf the 49,904 unique, adult ED patients without history of OUD, 669 (1.3%; 95% CI, 1.2-1.4) had health records indicating OUD within 12 months. The proportion of ED patients with OUD at 12 months was 1.5% (95% CI, 1.2-1.9) if prescribed an opioid at index and 1.3% (95% CI, 1.2-1.4) if not. Of the 669 who developed OUD, 80 (12.0%) were prescribed an opioid at the index ED visit, 54 (8%) received an opioid prescription at a subsequent ED visit, and median time to OUD was 4.5 months (interquartile range 1.6-7.6, range 0.0-11.9). When controlling for demographics, mental health, and prior opioid prescriptions, there was no difference in OUD incidence between patients who did or did not receive an initial ED opioid prescription (HR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.9-1.4).

conclusionsA small but meaningful proportion of the ED population will develop OUD within 1 year even without ED opioid prescription. Though we found no association between ED opioid prescription and later OUD, further study is warranted given the complexity factors influencing OUD incidence, ongoing ED opioid exposure, and limitations inherent to this study design.

Indexed as

narcoticsopiatesubstance use disorder

Identifiers

PMID34189517
PMCPMC8219283
OpenAlexW3174022334

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.