Prescribing of Strong Opioid Analgesics by UK Primary Care Physicians from 2000 to 2010
Background: An increasing trend in opioid prescribing over the past 10 years has been reported, and this trend was associated with increasing incidences of dependence and misuse, healthcare resources consumption and death rate in the United States. However, little is known about the opioids pre...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
John Wiley & Sons
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/29234/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29234/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29234/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29234/1/870._Prescribing_of_Strong_Opioid_Analgesics.pdf |
| Summary: | Background: An increasing trend in opioid prescribing
over the past 10 years has been reported, and this trend
was associated with increasing incidences of dependence
and misuse, healthcare resources consumption and death
rate in the United States. However, little is known about
the opioids prescribing in primary care settings in the United
Kingdom (UK).
Objectives: This study evaluated the utilisation trends of
strong opioid analgesics prescribed for pain management
in the UK primary care settings.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from
2000 to 2010 using the General Practice Research Database,
which is a large computerized health care database
collected from 639 primary care practices throughout the
UK. Prescribing data of patients who were prescribed
strong opioid-containing drugs (buprenorphine, fentanyl,
morphine and oxycodone) for pain management were
extracted by using specific product codes. Total number
of prescriptions for each drug was calculated. Descriptive
statistics and simple linear regression were used to evaluate
the proportion and annual trend of number of prescriptions.
Results: A total of 2.77 million prescriptions were identified
for study drugs over the 11 years study period. Of
those prescriptions, morphine was the most frequently
prescribed category (n = 1.39 million, 50%), followed by
fentanyl (n = 487,771, 18%), buprenorphine
(n = 474,869, 17%) and oxycodone (n = 424,126, 15%).
The trends of prescribing for all study drugs significantly
increased (p < 0.001) from 2000 to 2010. Prescribing of
oxycodone increased the most (10,960%) compared with
buprenorphine (1,707%), fentanyl (1,135%) and morphine
(394%).
Conclusions: This preliminary study showed that the prescribing
trend for strong opioid analgesics in the UK has
increased significantly in the past 11 years. Further studies
are required to understand the reasons for the increasing
prescribing trend, quantify the opioid prescribing doses
and test the association between increasing opioid utilisation
and clinical outcomes. |
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