ArticleEuropean child & adolescent psychiatry2023
Killing pain?: a population-based registry study of the use of prescription analgesics, anxiolytics, and hypnotics among all children, adolescents and young adults in Norway from 2004 to 2019.
Article in European child & adolescent psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04336605 (Killing Pain - Use of Analgesic, Sedative and Anxiolytic Medication and the Development of Psychiatric Illness in Adolescents), which is not on this map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Killing Pain - Use of Analgesic, Sedative and Anxiolytic Medication and the Development of Psychiatric Illness in Adolescents
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Melatonin Use in Young Children: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2026Pooled it
- Z-drug abuse and dependence: clinical guideline of the Brazilian Academy of Neurology for diagnosis and management.Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria · 2025Guideline
- Analgesic Prescribing Trends of Opioids, Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, and Paracetamol in Taiwan (2001-2020): Age-Period-Cohort Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2026Article
- Improving Pain Literacy Among Future Educators: Contemporary Pain Neuroscience Education in Teacher Preparation.The Journal of school health · 2026Article
- Prescribing of controlled substances to adolescents and young adults enrolled in Medicaid, 2001-2019.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Prevalence of headache disorders in Norway: results from the population based PopHEAD study.The journal of headache and pain · 2025Article
- Co-creating support for adolescents with long-lasting pain: findings from workshops with adolescents, parents, and professionals.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Youths' mental health care in the 21European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Trends in the use and nonmedical use of sedatives-hypnotics in the population aged 12 to 64 years in Taiwan: a comparative analysis of the national surveys in 2014 and 2018.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Use of general practitioner services among youth and young adults in Norway from 2006 to 2021.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2023Article
- Exposure to traumatic events and use of over-the-counter analgesics in adolescents: cross-sectional findings from the Young-HUNT study.BMJ open · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The ongoing opioid epidemic has been a global concern for years, increasingly due to its heavy toll on young people's lives and prospects. Few studies have investigated trends in use of the wider range of drugs prescribed to alleviate pain, psychological distress and insomnia in children, adolescents and young adults. Our aim was to study dispensation as a proxy for use of prescription analgesics, anxiolytics and hypnotics across age groups (0-29 years) and sex over the last 15 years in a large, representative general population. The study used data from a nationwide prescription database, which included information on all drugs dispensed from any pharmacy in Norway from 2004 through 2019. Age-specific trends revealed that the prevalence of use among children and adolescents up to age 14 was consistently low, with the exception of a substantial increase in use of melatonin from age 5. From age 15-29, adolescents and young adults used more prescription drugs with increasing age at all time points, especially analgesics and drugs with higher potential for misuse. Time trends also revealed that children from age 5 were increasingly dispensed melatonin over time, while adolescents from age 15 were increasingly dispensed analgesics, including opioids, gabapentinoids and paracetamol. In contrast, use of benzodiazepines and z-hypnotics slightly declined in young adults over time. Although trends were similar for both sexes, females used more prescription drugs than their male peers overall. The upsurge in use of prescription analgesics, anxiolytics and hypnotics among young people is alarming.Trial registration The study is part of the overarching Killing Pain project. The rationale behind the Killing Pain research was pre-registered through ClinicalTrials.gov on April 7, 2020. Registration number NCT04336605; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT04336605 .
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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.