A New Study of Opioid Addiction Only Muddies the Water Further

By Pat Anson

Over the years, hundreds of studies have been conducted to determine how common it is for a pain patient on long-term opioid therapy to become addicted. Estimates range from less than 1% to more than 80% of patients developing opioid use disorder (OUD), also known as problematic pharmaceutical opioid use (POU).

The wide variation in estimates is largely due to conflicting definitions, terminology, study design and biases. Is a patient misusing or abusing prescription opioids? Do they show signs of dependence or withdrawal? It literally depends which study you read.

New research that tries to settle the matter may have only muddied the water further.

A team of researchers at the University of Bristol conducted a meta-analysis of 148 clinical studies involving over 4.3 million patients in North America and the UK who were treated with opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. The 148 studies were all that was left from nearly 5,300 that were initially screened and rejected for various reasons — which should tell you a lot about the quality of studies that are out there.

“Clinicians and policy makers need a more accurate estimate of the prevalence of problematic opioid use in pain patients so that they can gauge the true extent of the problem, change prescribing guidance if necessary, and develop and implement effective interventions to manage the problem.  Knowing the size of the problem is a necessary step to managing it,” said lead author Kyla Thomas, PhD, Professor of Public Health Medicine at the University of Bristol.

Thomas and her colleagues included studies in their review that reported any sign of POU, such as abuse, tolerance, addiction, dependence, misuse, substance use disorder or “aberrant behavior.” The latter includes seemingly benign behavior like a patient being poorly dressed or unkempt in appearance, canceling or missing an appointment, asking for a specific drug, or even just complaining about their pain.

In some studies, “misuse” was defined so broadly that it included patients who stopped using opioids because their pain went away or they took a pill less often than recommended. A patient like that might be suspected of hoarding or even selling their unused medication.     

In other words, the researchers cast a pretty wide net on what constitutes OUD. And they hauled in a lot of fish.

Their findings, recently published in the journal Addiction, estimate that nearly one in ten pain patients (9.3%) are dependent on opioids and have OUD.

Nearly a third (29.6%) have “signs and symptoms” of dependence and OUD, and over one in five (22%) displayed aberrant behavior.

“Prescription painkiller misuse and addiction are widespread in chronic pain patients” is how the University of Bristol trumpeted the results in a press release, with the lone caveat that “these findings should be interpreted with caution.”

‘OUD Is Everywhere’

Critics of the study were quick to point out that equating dependence with opioid use disorder is misleading at best – the equivalent of a diabetic dependent on insulin being labeled with “insulin use disorder.”

“This is just one more paper, one of zillions, that seizes upon some outcome measures that have poor or no basis in science and that are not in any way indicative of addiction,” says Stephen Nadeau, MD, Professor of Neurology at the University of Florida College of Medicine. “As is so common, it favors the ridiculous notion that OUD is everywhere.”

Nadeau says any patient on daily opioids will experience symptoms of dependence or withdrawal if their medication is suddenly stopped. Neither is a clear sign of addiction or substance use problem, just as a patient asking for a higher dose is not necessarily a symptom of OUD.

“There is never any recognition of the ubiquitous phenomenon of pseudo-addiction: a patient in desperate pain asks for an increase in dosage. Instead of the request being interpreted at face value, the patient is branded with the diagnosis of OUD and booted from the clinic,” Nadeau told PNN.

Being “branded” or stigmatized is something that chronic pain patients like Brett Bradford are all too familiar with. He thinks the new addiction study will only result in more patients being taken off opioids.

“All physicians coming out of med school are being taught these hyper anti-opioid policies. This is only going to fuel things to get worse,” said Bradford. “This madness will not stop until opiates are totally off the market and nobody will be able to get any pain meds for any reason, short of being on their death bed. Maybe. If they are lucky.”

The Rx Opioid Most Likely To Be Misused May Surprise You

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

For well over a decade, addiction treatment providers and public health officials have been touting the benefits of buprenorphine, an opioid that can treat both pain and addiction. When combined with naloxone in drugs like Suboxone that treat opioid use disorder (OUD), buprenorphine reduces cravings for opioids and lowers the risk of abuse.    

But a new study published in JAMA Network Open suggests that someone is far more likely to misuse buprenorphine than other opioids. In fact, the misuse rate for buprenorphine is over two times higher than misuse rates for hydrocodone, oxycodone and other opioid pain medications.

Researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted the study, looking at data from nearly 215,000 people who participated in the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health from 2015 to 2019.

Respondents were asked if they misused prescription opioids “in any way that a doctor did not direct you to use them.” If they used someone else’s prescription or took opioids in greater amounts or more often than they were told by a doctor, that was considered “misuse.”

Researchers crunched the numbers and found that the vast majority of people do not misuse opioid pain medication and take it as directed. Oxycodone, for example, was misused by 12.7% of respondents who took it, followed by hydromorphone (11.8%), hydrocodone (11.6%), and prescription fentanyl (11.5%). Tramadol (7.8%) was misused the least.  

Addiction treatment drugs were misused the most. Buprenorphine was misused by 29.2% of the people who took it, followed by methadone at 22.2 percent. It’s not uncommon for someone getting OUD treatment to have relapses, so perhaps that finding is not altogether surprising.

% MISUSE RATES FOR PRESCRIPTION OPIOIDS

SOURCE: JAMA NETWORK OPEN

Although buprenorphine is misused at a rate over two times higher than other opioids, researchers chose to focus on the positive: a recent downward trend in buprenorphine misuse, despite increases in the number of patients receiving buprenorphine treatment.

“In 2019, nearly three-fourths of US adults reporting past-year buprenorphine use did not misuse their prescribed buprenorphine, and most who misused reported using prescription opioids without having their own prescriptions. These findings underscore the need to pursue actions that expand access to buprenorphine-based OUD treatment, to develop strategies to monitor and reduce buprenorphine misuse,” researchers concluded.

What Is Misuse?

Every study has its flaws, and this one is no exception. Findings based on self-reported survey results are subject to poor memories, recall bias and concerns about stigma. The researchers’ broad definition of “misuse” could also result in a diagnosis of OUD when none actually exists, according to a pain management expert.

“It is not really clear what any of the data means clinically because of the very broad definition of the word misuse,” said Lynn Webster, MD, Senior Fellow at the Center for U.S. Policy (CUSP) and Chief Medical Officer of PainScript. “Behavior of taking an extra pill to control pain, despite it not being specifically directed by the prescribing provider, could be described as ‘misuse.’ This is not necessarily harmful, even if it is inappropriate. The implication is that simply taking an additional pill is an indication of OUD behavior. That would not be an appropriate characterization of the behavior. 

“In fact, the authors report the most common reason to misuse medication is to relieve pain in the OUD and non-OUD groups. This may imply that most people who are misusing their medications are experiencing undertreated pain.” 

The JAMA study is not the first to report a high rate of buprenorphine misuse. The DEA’s 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment reported that buprenorphine is misused more often than methadone or hydrocodone, and that it was poised to replace oxycodone as the most commonly misused prescription opioid. Unlike the JAMA study, the DEA said the misuse of buprenorphine was increasing, not declining.   

Fentanyl and Heroin Use Rise During Pandemic

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

The use of illicit fentanyl and heroin rose dramatically during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a large new study by Quest Diagnostics. Misuse of hydrocodone, morphine and some other opioid medications also increased.

The study adds to growing signs that Americans are turning to potent illicit drugs to cope with the stress and economic disruption caused by the pandemic.

“It’s the social isolation, the depression, the anxiety, stress, job loss, the loss of health insurance and the election. All these things that add stress to our lives are driving people to increase use of alcohol at home and, in the case of this study, drug misuse,” said co-author Harvey Kaufman, MD, Senior Medical Director for Quest Diagnostics. 

Kaufman and his colleagues analyzed data from over 872,000 urine drug tests, comparing samples taken before the pandemic to those taken from March 15 to May 14, 2020. The urine samples came largely from people undergoing substance abuse treatment or were prescribed opioids and other controlled substances, and are not representative of the population at large.

Interestingly, while the rate of drug misuse remained largely the same before and during the pandemic – about 49 percent – there were notable shifts in the type of drugs being misused.

Drug positivity rates increased by 44% for heroin and 35% for non-prescribed fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Positivity rates for non-prescribed opiate medication (hydrocodone, hydromorphone, codeine and morphine) rose by 10 percent. There were no significant changes in the misuse of oxycodone and tramadol. 

Fentanyl was frequently found in urine samples that tested positive for amphetamines (89%), benzodiazepines (48%), cocaine (34%), and opiates (39%). The abuse of multiple substances in combination with fentanyl has been a growing problem for years, but Quest researchers were surprised by how much it has accelerated.

“It’s shocking that something could move that quickly. It’s been well underway for half a dozen years, but the pandemic supercharged it,” Kaufman told PNN.

Gabapentin Misuse

One surprising detail in the Quest study is that the nerve drug gabapentin (Neurontin) is being misused more often than any other prescription drug. Non-prescribed gabapentin was found in nearly 11% of urine samples — second only to marijuana — in the first two months of the pandemic. While that’s down from pre-pandemic levels, it adds to a growing body of evidence that gabapentin is being overprescribed and abused.

POSITIVITY RATES FOR NON-PRESCRIBED DRUGS (MARCH-MAY 2020)

SOURCE: QUEST DIAGNOSTICS

Gabapentin was originally developed as an anti-convulsant, but it has been repurposed to treat chronic pain and is often prescribed off-label as an alternative to opioids. When taken as prescribed, there is little potential for gabapentin to be misused. However, when taken with muscle relaxants, opioids or anxiety medications, gabapentin can produce a feeling of euphoria or high.

A likely factor in the decline in gabapentin misuse during the pandemic is a drop in physician visits. Fewer visits mean fewer prescriptions, and gabapentin may have become less available for diversion.

Just as stay-at-home orders forced many patients to cancel or postpone healthcare appointments, it also led a significant decline in drug testing. Orders for lab tests by Quest dropped by as much as 70% in the first few weeks of the pandemic. They have since rebounded, but are still well below pre-pandemic levels.

“COVID-19 interrupted non-essential patient care, but it hasn’t stopped drug misuse,” co-author Jeffrey Gudin, MD, Senior Medical Advisor to Quest, said in a statement. “Given the psychological, social, and financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, more efforts are needed to ensure that patients are taking medications as prescribed. While the nation focuses on the pandemic, we must not lose sight of the ongoing drug misuse epidemic, which continues to kill upwards of 70,000 Americans each year.” 

After briefly declining in 2018, drug overdoses began rising again in 2019. According to one preliminary study, drug overdoses are up about 17 percent so far this year.

Study Finds Cannabis Does Not Reduce Opioid Abuse

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

It’s a common belief that cannabis may reduce the use of opioids and may even help solve the opioid crisis. But a new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that people with substance abuse problems are just as likely to use heroin or to misuse prescription opioids on days when they consume cannabis.

The study, published in the journal Addiction, is believed to be one the first to test whether adults with substance abuse problems are substituting opioids with cannabis. Researchers followed 211 adults in the New York City area for 90 days, asking if they had used cannabis, heroin, or misused prescription opioids.

Participants were mostly male, unemployed, unmarried, and had a high prevalence of substance misuse and pain. “Misuse” of prescription opioids was defined as taking more pain medication than prescribed or without a prescription.

On average, participants reported they used cannabis on 15% of days without opioids, opioids were used on 15% of days without cannabis, and both cannabis and opioids were used on 7% of days. On days that participants used cannabis, the odds of using opioids nearly doubled. The findings were consistent whether participants were experiencing pain or not.

"Our results suggest that cannabis seldom serves as a substitute for non-medical opioids among opioid-using adults, even among those who report experiencing moderate or more severe pain," said Deborah Hasin, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School. "In other words, our study suggests that cannabis is not an effective way to limit non-medical opioid use."

Cannabis Users Need More Anesthesia

Another recent study found that cannabis may actually raise pain levels for patients recovering from surgery. In an analysis of 118 patients who had surgery for a broken leg at a Colorado hospital, researchers found that cannabis users needed more anesthesia during surgery than non-users. They were also more likely to have post-operative pain and use higher doses of opioid pain medication while hospitalized.

The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, adds to the growing body of research suggesting that patients who use cannabis have higher anesthesia needs and more surgery-related pain.

"There is some evidence that cannabis may be beneficial for chronic and nerve pain. However, early research suggests that this is not the case for acute pain such as for surgery of a broken leg," said lead author Ian Holmen, MD, an anesthesiology resident at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, where the study was conducted.

"We now understand patients who chronically use opioids prior to surgery often have exaggerated pain responses and need increased pain medication after surgery because they have an increased tolerance. We speculate that cannabis use may cause a similar effect, but we need more research to determine if this is the case."

Holmen and his colleagues found that cannabis users had higher pain scores while recovering from surgery and received 58% more opioids per day while hospitalized. They also needed about a third more anesthesia. The amount of anesthesia during surgery is typically based on observations of a patient’s involuntary body movements, increased heart rate, high blood pressure or increased rate of breathing, which are signs the patient may be experiencing more pain.

Researchers did not include in the study patients who suffered from chronic pain or those who had previously been prescribed opioids.

"This study shows that it is important for patients to tell their physician anesthesiologist if they have used cannabis products prior to surgery to ensure they receive the best anesthesia and pain control possible, including the use of non-opioid alternatives," said Holmen. "It also confirms that more research is needed to understand how cannabis impacts pain."

A 2019 study of patients who had colonoscopies found that regular marijuana users required three times the amount of a common sedative, propofol, as did nonusers.

High Number of Youths Using Rx Opioids

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A large new analysis of drug use by teenagers and young adults in the U.S. has found a surprisingly high level of prescription opioid use. In a survey of over 56,000 youths, researchers found that 21% of teens and 32% of young adults said they had used opioid medication in the past year.

"The percentages were higher than we expected," said first author Joel Hudgins, MD, of Boston Children's Hospital's Division of Emergency Medicine. "They really highlight how common use of prescription opioids is in this vulnerable population."

The data from the 2015-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health doesn’t necessarily reflect the environment that exists today. Opioid prescriptions have fallen by 43% since their peak and last year alone declined by a record 17 percent. Many pain patients — of all ages — now have trouble getting opioids prescribed and filled.

During the study period, nearly 4% of teens and 8% of young adults reported misusing prescription opioids or having an opioid use disorder.

Misuse was defined as using opioids “in any way that a doctor did not direct you to use them,” while a use disorder was classified as recurrent use that causes significant impairment and failure to meet major responsibilities at home, work or school.

Researchers were surprised by some of the findings, which are published in the online journal PLOS One. Among youths who reported misusing prescription opioids, 57% said they obtained them from friends or relatives and only 25% percent came from healthcare providers.

"In previous studies in adults, opioids were more commonly obtained from a physician," Hudgins says. "Our findings show that the focus of prevention and treatment should include close friends and family members of adolescents and young adults, not simply prescribers."

Youths who misused opioids, particularly the young adults, often reported using other substances, including cocaine (36%), hallucinogens (49%), heroin (9%) and inhalants (30%). At least half had used tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis in the past month.

In a previous study, the same researchers found relatively high rates of opioid prescribing to youths visiting emergency rooms and outpatient clinics. About fifteen percent of youths were given opioids during ER visits from 2005 to 2015.

"Given these rates of opioid use and misuse, strong consideration should be given to screening adolescents and young adults for opioid use when they receive care," says Hudgins.

More recent surveys have found a steady decline in the misuse of prescription opioids by young people. The most recent Monitoring the Future Survey found that only 3.4% of high school seniors misused opioid medication in 2018.

Misuse of Vicodin and OxyContin among 12th graders has fallen dramatically over the past 15 years, from 10.5% in 2003 to 1.7% in 2018 for Vicodin, and from 4.5% in 2003 to 2.3% in 2018 for OxyContin.   

8 of 10 Doctors Won’t Take New Patients on Opioids

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Nearly three quarters of primary care doctors (72%) worry that chronic pain patients will use illicit drugs if they lose access to prescription opioids, according to a new survey by Quest Diagnostics. And 77% believe the stigma surrounding drug addiction impairs patient care.

Despite those concerns about patient stigma and illegal drug use, the online survey of 500 physicians found that 8 out of 10 are reluctant to take on new patients who are currently prescribed opioids.

“Quest Diagnostics undertook this research so that we could provide insights into the evolving drug crisis and the potential role of physicians’ perspectives about their patients in drug misuse and use disorders,” said Harvey Kaufman, MD, Senior Medical Director, Quest Diagnostics.

“We found that primary care physicians, who are on the front lines of the drug epidemic, are well-intentioned but under-prepared and may miss some of the drug misuse risks affecting their patients.”

Quest compared the survey results to an analysis of 4.4 million drug tests ordered by physicians for patients prescribed opioids and other controlled substances. The findings suggest that many physicians have a poor understanding of their patients’ drug use.

For example, Quest found that over half of patients (51%) showed signs of misusing a prescribed drug, yet 72% of physicians believe their patients take controlled medications as prescribed.

Quest broadly defines drug “misuse” by including the absence of a prescribed medication. Many patients choose not to take a drug because they can’t afford it, don’t like its side effects, or feel they don’t need it. Patients required to have drug tests are also not representative of the general population.

Other key findings:

• 62% of doctors believe the opioid crisis will morph into a prescription drug crisis

• 24% of patients combined legal medications with other non-prescribed drugs or illicit substances

• 95% of doctors are confident in their ability discuss drug misuse with patients, but only 55% actually do

• 70% of doctors wish they had more training on how to taper patients off opioids.

• 75% of doctors wish they had more training on addiction

The Quest lab tests also found concerning results about the misuse of gabapentin (Neurontin), an anti-convulsant drug increasingly prescribed to treat pain. Over 13% of patients showed signs of misusing gabapentin in 2018, making it the mostly commonly misused prescription drug.

Nearly 8 out of 10 doctors (78%) said they often prescribe gabapentin as an alternative to opioids, but only 34% were concerned about its misuse.

“A vast majority of physicians recognize the need for more tools to prevent opioid drug misuse and substance use disorders, and that is why many are tightening opioid prescribing and turning to gabapentin as an alternative,” said pain specialist Jeffrey Gudin, MD, Senior Medical Advisor, Quest Diagnostics.

“While gabapentin may not have opioids’ addictive potential, it can exaggerate euphoric effects when combined with opioids or anxiety medications. This drug mixing is dangerous.”

Gabapentin and pregabalin (Lyrica) belong to a class of nerve medication known as gabapentinoids. A recent study found gabapentinoids increase the risk of suicide, overdose, traffic accidents and injuries in younger people. Sales of gabapentinoids have tripled in recent years in the United States, where they are often promoted in prescribing guidelines as safer alternatives to opioids.

Study: Prescription Drug Databases Overestimate Opioid Misuse

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Prescription drug monitoring has long been seen as the gold standard for tracking the opioid crisis. Patients who fill an opioid prescription for more than three months are considered long-term users with a higher risk of misuse, addiction and overdose. Many pharmacy chains assign a “risk score” to these patients and their doctors could even get a warning letter from the government.

But in a small study of emergency room patients, Canadian researchers found the risk of opioid misuse by long-term users is small and one out of five patients who fill opioid prescriptions don’t even use them. Their findings suggest that prescription databases alone are a poor way to measure opioid misuse.

“The rate of long‐term opioid use reported by filled prescription database studies should not be used as a surrogate for opioid misuse,” said lead author Raoul Daoust, MD, a professor and researcher in the Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine at the University of Montreal.

Daoust and his colleagues surveyed 524 patients who were discharged from a hospital emergency department (ED) with an opioid prescription for acute pain. Instead of just relying on a database to track their prescriptions, the researchers asked the patients about their opioid use.

Three months after discharge, only 47 patients – about 9 percent – said they were still using opioids. Of those, 72% said they used opioids to treat their initial pain and 19% were using the drugs to treat a new pain condition.

The remaining four patients said they used opioids for another reason, suggesting possible misuse. That’s less than one percent (0.8%) of the original 524 patients.

“Within the limit of our study, our results suggest that the risk of long‐term opioid use for reasons other than pain is low for ED discharged patients with an opioid prescription treating an acute pain condition,” Daoust reported in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.

Daoust’s findings are controversial because they throw into question the widely accepted theory that all opioid prescribing is risky, whether it’s for chronic or acute pain. The methodology used in his study was questioned by one critic.

"Emergency physicians should not be reassured by the authors' findings. The lack of a denominator, poor response rate (56%), and applied definition of misuse are significant limitations,” said Gail D'Onofrio, MD, a professor of emergency medicine and chair in the department of emergency medicine at Yale University.

D'Onofrio cites a 2017 CDC study, which found that the probability of long-term opioid use increases sharply after the first few days of treatment.

“Transitions from acute to long-term therapy can begin to occur quickly: the chances of chronic use begin to increase after the third day supplied and rise rapidly thereafter,” CDC researchers warned.

But that analysis is based solely on the number of opioid prescriptions – not actual opioid use. And Daoust found that studies like that are a poor way to measure risk.

“These studies used filled prescriptions databases that could overestimate opioid use since not all patients filling an opioid prescription consumed them. As a case in point, in this study, 21% of patients who filled their opioid prescription after the initial ED visit did not consume them,” Daoust reported.

What is the risk of long-term opioid use after an emergency room visit? In a large 2017 study by the Mayo Clinic, only about 1 percent of ER patients given an opioid prescription progressed to long term use – similar to what Daoust found.

"Our paper lays to rest the notion that emergency physicians are handing out opioids like candy," said lead author Molly Moore Jeffery, PhD, scientific director of the Mayo Clinic Division of Emergency Medicine Research. “Most opioid prescriptions written in the emergency department are for shorter duration, written for lower daily doses and less likely to be for long-acting formulations."

A 2018 study also questioned the value of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) which have long been promoted as critical tools in the fight against opioid abuse. The study found little evidence that PDMPs are reducing overdoses and that they may lead to unintended consequences such as patients turning to street drugs for pain relief.

Are Most Retired NFL Players Really Addicts?

By Lynn Webster, MD, PNN Columnist

Many of us watched the Super Bowl on Sunday. It was a great defensive game, which means there was a lot of hard-hitting contact. Physical trauma can bring about long-term consequences and that is the subject of a recent New York Times column, "For NFL Retirees, Opioids Bring More Pain" by Ken Belson.

Belson suggests that many retired NFL players become addicted to opioid medication. I don’t know how many former players become addicted, but the summation of players he describes as addicted doesn’t quite add up.

The column cites a recent study published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine that found about 26 percent of retired football players used opioid medication during the past 30 days. Belson suggests that percentage is excessive.

Of course, the players were not addicted just because they used an opioid. Moreover, 26 percent does not seem to be an unreasonable number, given that this is a population with a history of tremendous physical trauma. In fact, it seems like a surprisingly low number given that most former football players experienced enormous physical trauma for years.

Whatever the actual data may be, we can probably attribute the use or misuse of opioids to the fact that these retired players were trying to mitigate severe pain.  

What is Misuse?

The accepted definition of opioid "misuse" is taking an opioid contrary to how it was prescribed, even if it is taken to treat pain. For example, let's say a person is told they can use one hydrocodone three times a day. If that person uses one pill six times a day so they can function (and not to get high), that is considered misusing. However, that is not a sign of addiction. It only reflects the person's desire to escape pain and the therapeutic inadequacy of the prescribed medication. 

Misuse of opioids in the general population is relatively rare, according to a large new study published in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety. Over 31,000 adults were surveyed about their opioid use, and only 4.4% admitted taking a larger dose or a dose more frequently than prescribed.  

The figure below helps explain the relationships of misuse, abuse and addiction. Some retired football players may misuse their medication, but few will abuse them and even fewer will become addicted. All people with addiction abuse their medication. But people who misuse their medication may not be abusing or addicted to it.  

In his column, Belson cites a 2011 survey by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine that found over half of former NFL players used opioids during their playing careers and 71 percent misused them.

The same study found that many of these retired players who misused opioids were heavy drinkers. But in his column, Belson reported that "players who abused opioids” were likely to be heavy drinkers.  

Belson uses the words “misuse” and “abuse” interchangeably, as if they have the same meaning. They do not. If Belson means that retired players took opioids in excess of what their doctors prescribed due to uncontrolled pain, that would not be abuse. It would be misuse. If the players were using opioids to get high, that would be abuse. 

Belson mentions one retired player using the same amount of pain medicine as a stage 4 cancer patient and suggests that is an excessive amount. However, the player's need for that amount of opioids should not surprise us. Cancer pain is not more painful than non-cancer pain. People with painful diseases and physical injuries may have pain just as debilitating as a patient dying from cancer.

It is unfortunate, but not shocking, that a retired football player would have as much pain as someone dying of cancer. When someone who does not have cancer uses excessive medication to relieve pain, we are more likely to label that as "abuse." We show more compassion to patients with cancer pain than we do toward anyone else who requires treatment for chronic pain.  

Why We Need Clarity About Our Terms 

Belson writes, "Now, a growing number (of players) are saying the easy access to pills turned them into addicts." That is another statement that gravely concerns me. It is misleading and consistent with the common misunderstanding of what causes addiction or even what addiction is.  

Becoming dependent on opioids, becoming tolerant to opioids, requiring more opioids over time to achieve the same level of pain relief, and experiencing withdrawal if the opioids are suddenly stopped are not necessarily signs of addiction, any more than they would be if the same consequences resulted from taking a blood pressure medication or a sleep aid.  

People frequently write and talk about misuse, abuse and addiction, but many of them don't know what the terms mean.  This has troubling implications for the pain and addiction communities. Mislabeling and misdiagnosing people with addiction leads to harmful policies that adversely affect treatment. It even has legal implications that prevent people in pain or with addiction from accessing appropriate clinical care.  

Severe chronic pain and addiction can devastate lives. But we need to know the differences between misuse of, abuse of, and addiction to medications for the appropriate policies to be implemented. 

Lynn R. Webster, MD, is a vice president of scientific affairs for PRA Health Sciences and consults with the pharmaceutical industry. He is a former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the author of “The Painful Truth: What Chronic Pain Is Really Like and Why It Matters to Each of Us.”

You can find Lynn on Twitter: @LynnRWebsterMD. 

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.

Do Half of Americans Really ‘Misuse’ Drugs?

By Pat Anson, Editor

One of the nation’s largest drug testing companies has released a study claiming that over half of Americans who are prescribed medication show signs of drug misuse, including potentially dangerous drug combinations.

In 2016, Quest Diagnostics found that 52% of patient test results were “inconsistent” with their prescribed medications. That was an improvement over the rate found in 2011, when 63% of samples were inconsistent.

The Quest report, titled "Prescription Drug Misuse in America: Diagnostic Insights in the Growing Drug Epidemic," is based on an analysis of 3.4 million laboratory tests performed between 2011 and 2016.

Many of the specimen samples came from patients being treated in pain management and addiction treatment clinics, which are not representative of the population as a whole.

Like previous studies of its kind, Quest broadly defines what constitutes drug “misuse” – a misleading term many people associate with abuse, addiction and diversion. Nearly a quarter of the patients (23%) with inconsistent results had no drugs detected in their system, which simply means they were not taking medications as directed.

The other 77% tested positive for illegal drugs or for a medication they were not prescribed.

"Over the past several years, federal and state government, clinician organizations, public health advocates and providers have all launched campaigns to educate the public about the perils of prescription drug misuse, which hypothetically should have yielded a significant rate of improvement. Yet our study shows that every other American tested for possible inappropriate use of opioids and other prescription drugs is potentially at risk," said F. Leland McClure, PhD, director of medical affairs at Quest Diagnostics.

"This finding is rather shocking, and speaks to the challenges of combating the nation's drug misuse epidemic."

Are the results really all that shocking? Or were they ginned up to hype the so-called epidemic? Consider some of the reasons a patient may not take a drug or have an inconsistent test result:

• Patient didn't like side effects from a medication
• Pain or other symptoms have subsided, so medication is not needed
• Patient skipped a dose
• Patient cannot afford a medication
• Patient can’t find a pharmacy willing to fill their prescription
• Patient may be a “rapid metabolizer” of a medication
• Physician may not be aware another doctor prescribed a drug
• Inaccurate drug test

The latter is a very real problem in the drug testing industry. As PNN has reported, “point-of-care” urine tests widely used by pain management and addiction treatment doctors to screen patients for illicit drug use are wrong about half the time, often giving false positive or false negative results for drugs like marijuana, oxycodone and methadone. 

The Quest study identified some disturbing and encouraging trends in drug use.

It wasn't opioids but benzodiazepines – a class of anti-anxiety medication that includes Xanax – that were most likely to be misused by adults over the age of 25.  Marijuana was most likely to be misused by people aged 18 to 24.   Opioids were second in both age groups.

Quest researchers found a striking decline in drug misuse among adolescents 10 to 17 years of age. The inconsistency rate for adolescents dropped from a whopping 70% in 2011 to 29% in 2016. Amphetamines and attention deficit disorder drugs were most likely to be abused by adolescents.

Among nearly 34,000 patient samples tested for opioids, alcohol and benzodiazepines, more than 20% were positive for opioids and benzodiazepines, 10% were positive for alcohol and opioids, and 3% were positive for all three.  Any combination of these drugs raises the risk of respiratory depression and overdose.

Misuse rates were higher for men and women of reproductive age (58%) than in the general study population (52%). The findings are significant because opioid and benzodiazepine use may decrease male fertility and, if taken during pregnancy, increase the risk of birth defects and other health concerns.

Quest is one of several drug testing laboratories that have been fined millions of dollars for paying kickbacks to physicians and patients for medically unnecessary tests.  Recent guidelines adopted by the American Society of Addiction Medicine warn doctors about ordering expensive drug tests that have led to “unethical and/or fraudulent activities.”

Poorly Treated Pain Main Reason for Opioid Misuse

By Pat Anson, Editor

Over a third of the U.S. adult population -- nearly 92 million Americans – used prescription opioids in 2015, according to a large new survey that found the primary reason people misuse opioid medication was to relieve pain.

The findings of the annual survey by the Substances Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, seem likely to fuel another round of anti-opioid media coverage about the overdose crisis. 

The study estimated that 11.5 million Americans misused opioids in 2015, and nearly two million thought they were addicted and had an opioid use disorder. 

But a closer reading of the reasons behind the misuse indicates that pain is poorly treated by the healthcare system, especially for Americans who are economically disadvantaged or lack insurance.

“Misuse” in the survey was defined as using an opioid medication without a prescription, for reasons other than directed, or in greater amounts or more often than prescribed.

Asked what was the main reason behind their misuse, two-thirds (66%) of those who self-reported misuse said it was to relieve physical pain. Nearly 11 percent said it was to “get high or feel good” and less than one percent (0.6%) said they were “hooked” or addicted to opioids.

“Our results are consistent with findings that pain is a poorly addressed clinical and public health problem in the United States and that it may be a key part of the pathway to misuse or addiction. Because pain is a symptom of many pathologic processes, better prevention and treatment of the underlying disorders are necessary to decrease pain and the morbidity and mortality associated with opioid misuse,” wrote lead author Beth Han, MD, PhD, a SAMHSA researcher.

“Simply restricting access to opioids without offering alternative pain treatments may have limited efficacy in reducing prescription opioid misuse and could lead people to seek prescription opioids outside the health system or to use nonprescription opioids, such as heroin or illicitly made fentanyl, which could increase health, misuse, and overdose risks.”

That appears to be what is happening. The CDC recently acknowledged that opioid prescribing has been in decline since 2010, yet opioid overdoses are soaring around the country, reaching 33,000 deaths in 2015, many of them caused by illicit opioids.  The DEA reported last week that over half the overdoses in Pennsylvania in 2016 were linked to illicit fentanyl. Prescription painkillers were involved in only about 25% of the overdoses, behind fentanyl, heroin, benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety medication), and cocaine.

In the SAMHSA survey, only a third of those who misused opioids said they obtained them legally from a doctor. The rest said they were obtained for free from a friend or relative, or were bought or stolen.

In addition to physical pain, the survey found that economic despair was a leading factor associated with opioid misuse. Uninsured, unemployed and low-income adults had a higher risk of opioid misuse and use disorder. People who were depressed, had suicidal thoughts, or were in poor health also were at higher risk.

“In more than 20 years practicing primary care in safety-net health settings, I have come to think of the patients at highest risk as my patients -- those with lower levels of education and income and higher rates of unemployment and uninsurance, our society's most vulnerable members,” wrote Karen Lasser, MD, Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine, in an editorial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“The fact that uninsured persons were twice as likely as those with insurance to report prescription opioid misuse and also had higher rates of use disorders augments the urgency of expanding insurance coverage. With insurance, persons suffering from pain could seek medical care rather than relying on opioids prescribed for others or purchased illegally.”

Over 72,000 American adults participated in the SAMHSA survey. Each interview lasted about an hour and participants received $30 in cash afterwards.

Do You Use Alcohol to Relieve Chronic Pain?

By Rochelle Odell, Columnist

I’m in a Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS/RSD) support group and one of our members recently asked if any members were turning to alcohol because their pain medication had been reduced or stopped.

It piqued my interest, so I began researching the topic. There aren’t many current studies or reports, but it’s a valid question since alcohol is much easier to obtain than pain medication.

Alcohol was among the earliest substances used to relieve physical pain and, of course, many people use it to cope with emotional pain.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, as many as 28% of people with chronic pain turn to alcohol to alleviate their suffering.

Another study from 2009 found that about 25% of patients self-medicated with alcohol for tooth pain, jaw pain or arthritis pain.

There is no documented increase in alcohol use by chronic pain patients at this time, although I would hope there are studies in process that further clarify the question and problems arising from it -- especially with opioid pain medication being reined in and so many patients left with nothing to relieve their pain.

There are many reasons why a person may self-medicate with alcohol.

“People have been using alcohol to help cope with chronic pain for many years. Many people also may use alcohol as a way to manage stress, and chronic pain often can be a significant stressor,” Jonas Bromberg, PsyD, wrote in PainAction.

“One theory about why alcohol may be used to manage chronic pain is because it affects the central nervous system in a way that may result in a mild amount of pain reduction. However, medical experts are quick to point out that alcohol has no direct pain-relieving value, even if the short-term affects provide some amount of temporary relief. In fact, using alcohol as a way to relieve pain can cause significant problems, especially in cases of excessive use, or when it is used with pain medication.”

Constant, unrelenting pain is definitely a stressor -- that's putting it mildly -- but I’ve never added alcohol to my pain medication regimen. I was always afraid of the possible deadly side effects, coupled with the fact my mother was an alcoholic who mixed her medication with it. That's a path I have chosen not to go down.

Bromberg also tells us that men may be more likely to use alcohol for pain relief than women, and people with higher income also tend to use alcohol more to treat their chronic pain.

Interestingly, the use of alcohol is usually not related to how intense a person’s pain is or how long they’ve had it. It was the regularity of pain symptoms – chronic pain -- that seemed most related to alcohol use, according to Bromberg.

Those who self-medicate with alcohol for physical or emotional pain often use it with a variety of substances, both legal and illegal.

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center reported last year in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that in a study of nearly 600 patients who screened positive for illicit drugs, nearly 90 percent had chronic pain. Over half of them used marijuana, cocaine or heroin, and about half reported heavy drinking.

“It was common for patients to attribute their substance use to treating symptoms of pain,” the researchers reported. “Among those with any recent heavy alcohol use, over one-third drank to treat their pain, compared to over three-quarters of those who met the criteria for current high-risk alcohol use.”

“Substance use” (not abuse) was defined as use of illegal drugs, misuse of prescription drugs, or high risk alcohol use. I had not heard of this term before, it’s usually called substance abuse.  Perhaps these researchers were onto something really important that needs further study, particularly with opioid medication under fire.

“While the association between chronic pain and drug addiction has been observed in prior studies, this study goes one step further to quantify how many of these patient are using these substances specifically to treat chronic pain," they added.

What this information shows is that if one is on pain medication, using alcohol or an illegal substance does not make one unique. It is certainly not safe, but it does occur. We are all struggling to find ways to cope with chronic pain, and if someone is denied one substance they are at high risk of turning to another.

Rochelle Odell lives in California. She’s lived for nearly 25 years with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS/RSD).

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.