Nearly Half of Opioid-Naïve Inpatients Receive Opioids

Almost half of opioid-naïve hospitalized patients are given opioids during their hospital stay, according to the results of a recent study.

The effects of inpatient opioid use on post-discharge opioid use is not well understood, according to the study’s authors.

To explore this further, they conducted a retrospective cohort study of electronic health record data from 2010 to 2014 from 12 hospitals in Pennsylvania. Included in the study were 148,068 opioid-naïve patients (191,249 admissions) with at least 1 outpatient encounter within 12 months before and after their admission.

The researchers measured patterns of inpatient opioid use and looked for outpatient use 90 and 365 days after discharge.

Overall, opioids were administered in 48% of admissions, with patients being given opioids for a mean 67.9% of their hospital stay. Following adjustment for potential confounders, the researchers found that 5.9% of inpatients who received opioids had outpatient opioid use at 90 days compared with 3.0% of those without inpatient use. Outpatient use was higher in those patients who received their last dose of opioids less than 12 hours before discharge than in those with at least 24 opioid-free hours before discharge (7.5% vs 3.9%).

“This study found high rates of opioid administration to opioid-naive inpatients and associations between specific patterns of inpatient use and risk for long-term use after discharge.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Donohue JM, Kennedy JN, Seymour CW, et al. Patterns of opioid administration among opioid-naive inpatients and associations with postdischarge opioid use: a cohort study [published online June 18, 2019]. Ann Intern Med. DOI: 10.7326/M18-2864