Association Between Facility-Level Utilization of Non-pharmacologic Chronic Pain Treatment and Subsequent Initiation of Long-Term Opioid Therapy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Expert guidelines recommend non-pharmacologic treatments and non-opioid medications for chronic pain and recommend against initiating long-term opioid therapy (LTOT).

Objective

We examined whether veterans with incident chronic pain receiving care at facilities with greater utilization of non-pharmacologic treatments and non-opioid medications are less likely to initiate LTOT.

Design

Retrospective cohort study PARTICIPANTS: Veterans receiving primary care from a Veterans Health Administration facility with incident chronic pain between 1/1/2010 and 12/31/2015 based on either of 2 criteria: (1) persistent moderate-to-severe patient-reported pain and (2) diagnoses "likely to represent" chronic pain.

Main measures

The independent variable was facility-l

SUBMITTER: Carey EP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5902343 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature