Depressed patients more likely to be prescribed opioids
"Our findings show that these drugs are more often prescribed to low back pain patients who also have symptoms of depression and there is strong evidence that depressed patients are at greater risk for misuse and overdose of opioids," said John Markman, M.D., director of the Department of Neurosurgery's Translational Pain Research Program at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and senior author of the study which appears in PAIN Reports , a journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Low back pain is a leading cause of disability in the U.S., the most common condition for which opioids are a prescribed treatment. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a federally-compiled set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers, and employers across the U.S., the researchers compiled opioid prescription data from 2004-2009. This period is important because it coincides with a steep rise the pre...