The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures on the prescribing trends and utilization of opioids in the English primary care setting: segmented-liner regression analysis.
Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol
; 15(6): 787-793, 2022 Jun.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1900960
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in limited access to most of the conventional chronic pain management services. Subsequently, changes in opioids' utilization could be expected. This study assessed the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown on opioid utilization using aggregated-level, community dispensing dataset covering the whole English population. RESEARCH DESIGN ANDMETHODS:
A segmented-linear regression analysis was applied to monthly dispensed opioid prescriptions from March 2019 to March 2021. Opioid utilization was measured using the number of opioids' items dispensed/1000 inhabitants and Defined Daily Dose (DDD)/1000 inhabitants/day during 12-months pre/post the lockdown in March 2020 stratified by strong and weak opioids.RESULTS:
For all opioids' classes, there were nonsignificant changes in the number of opioids' items dispensed/1000 inhabitants trend pre-lockdown, small increases in their level immediately post-lockdown, and a non-significant decline in the trend post-lockdown. Similarly, a non-significant reduction in the DDD/1000 inhabitant/day baseline trend pre-lockdown, nonsignificant immediate increases in the level post-lockdown, and declines in the trend post-lockdown for all opioids' classes were observed.CONCLUSION:
Unexpectedly, opioid utilization does not appear to have been significantly affected by the lockdown measures during the study period. However, patient-level data is needed to determine more accurate estimates of any changes in the opioid prescribing including incident prescribing/use.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
/
Analgesics, Opioid
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
17512433.2022.2093715
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