Association of opioid tapering with pain-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and primary care visits: a retrospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Tapering of chronic opioids has increased, with subsequent reports of exacerbated pain among patients who tapered. We aimed to evaluate the association between opioid dose tapering and subsequent pain-related healthcare utilization (emergency department [ED] visits, hospitalizations and primary care visits).

Design, setting, and subjects

We conducted a retrospective cohort study from years 2015-2019 using data from the Optum Labs Data Warehouse that contains de-identified retrospective administrative claims data for commercial and Medicare Advantage enrollees in the United States. Adults aged ≥18 years who were prescribed stable doses of opioids, ≥50 morphine milligram equivalents (MME)/day, during a 12-month baseline period.

Methods

Tapering was defined as

SUBMITTER: Magnan E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11967175 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature