ArticleJournal of pain and symptom management2022
Has Declining Opioid Dispensing to Cancer Patients Been Tailored to Risk of Opioid Harms?
Article in Journal of pain and symptom management, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of opioid stigma on patient-provider interaction and decision-making in cancer pain management: a qualitative meta-synthesis.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Opioid prescribing trends and pain scores among adult patients with cancer in a large health system.Cancer · 2025Article
- Increased pain in veterans with cancer-time to re-evaluate opioid prescribing practices?JNCI cancer spectrum · 2024Article
- Trends in new and persistent opioid use in older adults with and without cancer.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2024Article
- Healthcare provider perceptions and reported practices regarding opioid prescription for patients with chronic pain.Research square · 2023Article
- Health Care Provider Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Nonmedical Opioid Use in Patients with Cancer Pain.Journal of palliative medicine · 2023Article
- Management of pain in the cancer patient.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
contextOpioid prescribing to cancer patients is declining, but it is unknown whether reductions have been tailored to those at highest risk of opioid-related harms.
objectivesExamine whether declines in opioid dispensing to patients receiving active cancer treatment are sharper in patients with substance use disorder (SUD) or mental health diagnoses.
methodsWe used 2008-2018 national, commercial healthcare claims data to examine adjusted and unadjusted trends in opioid dispensing (receipt of ≥1 fill; average daily dosage; receipt of high-dose opioids; receipt of concurrent opioids and benzodiazepines) to patients ages ≥18 receiving treatment for one of four cancer types (breast; colorectal; head and neck; sarcoma; N = 324,789 patients). To compare declines across subgroups with varying risk of opioid-related harms, we stratified by SUD and mental health diagnosis. To address potential confounding, we estimated subgroup-specific trends using generalized estimating equations, adjusting for covariates.
resultsAcross groups, rate of ≥1 opioid fill per quarter fell 32.5% (95% CI: 31.8%-33.2%) from 2008 to 2018; daily dose among those receiving opioids fell 37.6% (95% CI: 36.7%-38.6%). In most cases, these declines were not sharper in subgroups at greater risk of opioid-related harms. For example, patients with opioid use disorder experienced the smallest declines in dispensing frequency, and there was no evidence that declines were sharper in patients with mental health diagnoses.
conclusionSharp declines in opioid prescribing during the drug overdose crisis have affected a wide range of patients undergoing cancer treatment and may not have been sufficiently tailored to patient characteristics. Research on implications for opioid-related harms and pain management is needed.
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