ReviewDrugs & aging2021
Problematic Opioid Use Among Older Adults: Epidemiology, Adverse Outcomes and Treatment Considerations.
Review in Drugs & aging, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
57 citing papers in PubMed, 107 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparison of responders and nonresponders with knee osteoarthritis after transcranial direct current stimulation.Pain management · 2024Trial
- Opioid Therapy Discontinuation in General Practice: Associations with Adjunct Therapies and Somatoform Pain Disorders.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2026Article
- Primary Care Practitioners' Approaches to Deprescribing Opioids for Older Adults With Chronic Pain: A Qualitative Analysis.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Drug Burden Index and Its Association With Functional Outcomes in Patients Receiving Hemodialysis.Kidney medicine · 2026Article
- Responsible AI for safer opioid risk management in older adults.npj health systems · 2026Article
- Opioid prescribing practices in the U.S. and subsequent falls: a scoping review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Age-dependent transcriptomic effects of morphine in the frontal cortex of female mice.Neuropharmacology · 2026Article
- The relationship between methadone dosage and plasma level changes with aging in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Article
- Pain Management in the Older Adult with Opioid Use Disorder.Clinics in geriatric medicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Perioperative ketorolac use and postoperative acute kidney injury in elderly patients undergoing noncardiac surgery: a retrospective cohort study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Treatment Outcomes in a Specialized Opioid Maintenance Program for Prescription Opioid Use Disorder in Israel.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Criterion validity and divergent risk profiles of long-term opioid therapy across medicare and medicaid.PloS one · 2026Article
- Adverse Drug Events Associated with Opioid Treatment for Pain After Motor Vehicle Crash.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Estimating average causal effects with incomplete exposure and confounders.Journal of causal inference · 2026Article
- The evolving epidemiology of opioid use disorder: polysubstance use, drug supply transformation, and policy implications.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Risk of opioid overdose associated with concurrent use of hydrocodone and CYP3A4-inhibiting calcium channel blockers: a population-based cohort study.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Risk factors for morphine-associated sedation in intravenous patient-controlled analgesia for postoperative pain.BMC anesthesiology · 2025Article
- Repeat Opioid Use Modulates Microglia Activity and Amyloid Beta Clearance in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
With the aging population, an increasing number of older adults (> 65 years) will be affected by problematic opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD), with both illicit and prescription opioids. Problematic opioid use is defined as the use of opioids resulting in social, medical or psychological consequences, whereas OUD is a form of problematic use that meets diagnostic criteria as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. Problematic use of opioids by older adults is associated with a number of pertinent adverse effects, including sedation, cognitive impairment, falls, fractures and constipation. Risk factors for problematic opioid use in this population include pain, comorbid medical illnesses, concurrent alcohol use disorder and depression. Treatment of OUD consists of acute detoxification and maintenance therapy. At this time, there have been no randomized controlled trials examining the effectiveness of pharmacological interventions for OUD in this population, with recommendations based on data from younger adults. Despite this, opioid agonist therapy (OAT) is recommended for both stages of treatment in older adults with OUD. Buprenorphine is recommended as a first line agent over methadone in the older adult population, due to a more favourable safety profile and relative accessibility. Use of methadone in this population is complicated by risk of QT interval prolongation and respiratory depression. Available observational data suggests that older adults respond well to OAT and age should not be a barrier to treatment. Further research is required to inform treatment decisions in this population.
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Registered trials
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.