Nearly 1 in every 10 chronic pain patients treated with opioids will be diagnosed with problematic opioid use Nearly one in three will develop symptoms of opioid addiction Previous claims from pharmaceutical companies held that fewer than 1% of chronic pain patients became addicted when using opioids THURSDAY, Aug. 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 1 in every 10 chronic pain patients treated with prescription opioids winds up addicted to the painkillers at some point, a new review finds. Further, nearly 1 in 3 will show symptoms of addiction, researchers reported Aug.
7 in the journal That evidence runs counter to claims made by companies like Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma that fewer than 1% of opioid prescriptions result in problems for patients, researchers noted. “Clinicians and policy makers need a more accurate estimate of the prevalence of problematic opioid use in pain patients so that they can gauge the true extent of the problem, change prescribing guidance if necessary, and develop and implement effective interventions to manage the problem,” said lead researcher , a professor of public health medicine at the University of Bristol in the U.K.
“Knowing the size of the problem is a necessary step to managing it,” Thomas added in a journal news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data drawn from 148 studies on opioid prescriptions dating from 1985 to 2021. They found that more than 9% of chronic pain patients prescribed opioids wound up diagnos.