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Research Article
3 November 2020

Impact of pain and nonpain co-morbidities on opioid use in women with endometriosis

Authors: Georgine Lamvu [email protected], Ahmed M Soliman, Beverly Johns, Jamie B Vora, and Stephanie J EstesAuthor Info & Affiliations
Volume 10, Number 1
https://doi.org/10.2217/cer-2020-0181
PDFFormats

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate impact of co-morbidities on opioid use in endometriosis. Patients & m ethods: This was a retrospective analysis of data obtained from the Symphony Health database (July 2015–June 2018), which contains medical and pharmacy claims information on 79,947 women with endometriosis. Relative risk (RR) of postdiagnosis opioid use and supply duration associated with baseline co-morbidities were determined. Results: Women with endometriosis using opioids at baseline were 61% more likely to receive opioids postdiagnosis (RR: 1.61; 95% CI: 1.59–1.63). Risk of prolonged opioid supply postdiagnosis was highest for those with prolonged supply at baseline (RR: 21.14; 20.14–22.19), and was 1.32 (1.26–1.38) for patients with ≥1 co-morbidity, 1.37 (1.31–1.43) for pain co-morbidities and 1.07 (1.04–1.11) for psychiatric co-morbidities. Conclusion: Risk of opioid use after endometriosis diagnosis was greater in patients who used opioids before diagnosis. Risk of prolonged opioid use was greater if co-morbidities existed before diagnosis.

Lay abstract

In this study, researchers looked at patients with endometriosis and their use of certain types of pain relief, known as opioids. In particular, the study looked at whether having other conditions as well as endometriosis (‘co-morbidities’) affected the use of opioids, by looking at information found in an insurance claims database. The researchers found that women who were treated with opioids before they were diagnosed with endometriosis were 61% more likely to be treated with opioids after diagnosis. Risk of opioid use over a long period of time was greater in women who had more than one co-morbidity and in those who had various pain or psychiatric co-morbidities. These findings suggest that it is important to carefully screen patients with endometriosis for co-morbidities, to make sure pain is managed properly, to reduce the use of opioids where they are not needed and to lower the risk of opioid abuse.

Supplementary Material

File (suppl_data.docx)

References

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