Chronic pain is defined as a pain that lasts for longer than 12 weeks. Often patients with chronic pain are treated with drugs known as opioids. However, opioids are known to have side effects such as nausea and constipation and can lead to dependency and both fatal and non-fatal overdoses. Whilst opioids undoubtedly have a role in pain management, there have been several initiatives aimed at reducing inappropriate use. Determining the most important influences on prescribing opioids for chronic pain may play an important role in changing the prescribing behaviour of general practitioners and reduce opioid prescription. The purpose of this study is to analyse trends in the prescribing of opioids and its associated healthcare resource utilisation and cost within different regions of England. This will provide valuable information about the prescribing trends within local healthcare regions and contribute to implementing alternative action plans and improve the management of chronic pain.
Increases in opioid prescriptions have been seen in the UK in recent years, leading to increases in healthcare resource utilisation and associated costs as well as concerns over the addiction and misuse of the drug. We aim to profile the diagnosis of chronic pain and the prescribing of weak, strong and non-opioids in England from 2010–2020 and examine the healthcare resource use and associated cost. Acceptable patients linked to the HES admitted patient care (APC), outpatient and accident and emergency datasets will be selected from the CPRD Aurum dataset if they have a medical code indicative of chronic pain and/or a product code indicative of analgesic prescription. The annual incidence and prevalence of chronic pain will be reported for each Office of National Statistics (ONS) region, and will be stratified for strong, weak and non-opioid prescription . Healthcare resource use in primary and secondary care following opioid initiation will be presented and HCRU will be costed using standard tariffs. In addition, characteristics of patients with chronic pain and markers of opioid abuse and addiction will be reported, stratified by opioid strength/non-opioids. This study will provide information on chronic pain and opioid prescribing trends within local healthcare regions, which in turn will contribute to the improvement of the management of chronic pain.
Patient characteristics; Prevalence trends; Incidence trends; Healthcare resource use; Prescription trends and costs; general practitioner contacts and costs; Inpatient admissions and costs; Outpatient visits and costs; Accident and Emergency visits and costs.
Leah Fisher - Chief Investigator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
Leah Fisher - Corresponding Applicant - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
Benjamin Heywood - Collaborator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
catherine alexander - Collaborator - Helping Health Ltd
Christopher Morgan - Collaborator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
HES Accident and Emergency;HES Admitted Patient Care;HES Outpatient;ONS Death Registration Data;Patient Level Index of Multiple Deprivation