Tobacco Linked With Greater Likelihood of Opioid/Sedative Prescription

Tobacco users are more likely to receive opioid analgesics with muscle relaxants or benzodiazepines than those who do not use tobacco, according to a recent study.

Use of tobacco and the co-prescription of sedative hypnotics have been shown to be risk factors for the misuse of prescribed opioids, according to the study’s authors. Despite this, the association between these drugs has not yet been clarified.

Using data from 114,119,536 weighted visits recorded in the 2006 to 2009 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, the conducted multiple logistic regression analyses in order to assess bivariate and multivariate associations between prescription rates and tobacco status.

Overall, significant odds ratios (ORs) for tobacco users vs non-users for medical prescriptions were 2.14 for opioid analgesics, 2.57 for muscle relaxants and opioid analgesics, 3.66 for benzodiazepines and opioid analgesics, and 7.02 for muscle relaxants, benzodiazepines, and opioid analgesics.

“Tobacco users were more likely to receive prescriptions for opioid analgesics with muscle relaxants and/or benzodiazepines than non‐users. Healthcare professionals need to limit co‐prescription of opioid analgesics with muscle relaxants and/or benzodiazepines among tobacco users and provide a comprehensive approach to pain management.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Takaki H, Leiri I, Shibuta H, et al. The association of tobacco use with prescription of muscle relaxants, benzodiazepines, and opioid analgesics for non‐cancer pain [published online January 9, 2019]. Am J Addict. Doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ajad.12830