Utility of a brief assessment of opioid demand among post-discharge trauma care patients

Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2022 Feb;30(1):15-22. doi: 10.1037/pha0000412. Epub 2020 Jul 16.

Abstract

Opioid misuse and opioid-related death are a growing public health concern. One population of interest is recent trauma and/or surgery patients, who are at increased risk of developing an opioid use disorder (OUD). Although a variety of assessments have been developed to screen for risk of opioid misuse, each has limitations and prediction needs improvement. One promising measure is drug demand, a behavioral economic measure assessing drug consumption at different price points. In the current proposal, we assessed the utility of a brief assessment of opioid demand. Demand and various pain-related self-report measures among trauma-surgery patients (N = 103) were assessed at 4 weeks post-discharge. Opioid demand was significantly associated with self-report measures of pain and amount of morphine milligram equivalents (MME) received during the hospital stay. The current result support the utility of the opioid demand as an adjunctive and complementary measure to assess risk of opioid misuse. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

MeSH terms

  • Aftercare
  • Analgesics, Opioid / therapeutic use
  • Emergency Medical Services*
  • Humans
  • Opioid-Related Disorders* / drug therapy
  • Patient Discharge

Substances

  • Analgesics, Opioid