Patients Opt for Stronger Opioids
High-potency agents like oxycodone soared in popularity over the last decade.
More patients are using stronger opioids than they were a decade ago, government researchers said.
In 2011-2012, far more patients reported using opioids in the last 30 days that were more potent than morphine compared with weaker-than-morphine opioids (37% versus 20%), Leonard Paulozzi, MD, MPH, of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues reported in an NCHS Data Brief.
Those numbers were effectively reversed from the 1999-2002 figures, when about 42% used weaker-than-morphine opioids compared with 17% who used stronger-than-morphine opioids.
The flip isn’t a surprise; these stronger opioids include oxycodone, fentanyl, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, and methadone — drugs that have been more commonly prescribed over the time period of the study.
Opioids that are weaker than morphine include tramadol, codeine, dihydrocodeine, meperidine, pentazocine, and propoxyphene.
Hydrocodone and tapentadol are equivalent to morphine, and 30-day use of these drugs has remained relatively stable.
MedPage Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have documented a liberalization in opioid prescribing during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and those numbers were often led by sales of OxyContin, the most popular branded form of oxycodone.
The latest NCHS data release also reflects that increase. Use of opioid analgesics among U.S. adults more than doubled from 3.4% in 1988-1994 to 6.9% in 2011-2012, Paulozzi and colleagues report.
Use plateaued in the 2003-2006 period, at 6.9%, which had risen from 5% in 1999-2000.
The researchers also analyzed 30-day opioid use by various demographic factors for the time period 2007-2012.
They found that more women reported opioid use than men (7.2% versus 6.3%) and that there was greater use among whites than among blacks or Hispanics (7.5% versus 6.5% and 4.9%, respectively).
Use was also greater among older patients, with 8.1% of those ages 40 to 59 and 7.9% of those age 60 and up reporting 30-day opioid use compared with 4.7% of those ages 20 to 39.
Filed under: General Problems
Ok, what is this study actually telling us? Less people are taking propoxyphene (which was taken off the market)? As written, this doesn’t say anything meaningful at all……
This is like a study showing more people are taking more potent Statins then Lovastatin (the natural product). A study showing numbers from 1999 vs. 2012.. How many people are taking more potent statins like Lipitor (Atorvastatin) or Crestor (Rustuvastatin)?
Just because a more “potent” drug comes out doesn’t mean anything. In most cases a drug more “potent” means you get a better effect from a lesser dose, which in most cases means less side effects.
Yes, there are problems with excess prescribing, but meaningless studies and press releases like this does nothing to help.