Chronic pain and continuity of analgesic treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pain Pract
; 23(4): 359-367, 2023 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2305111
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Chronic pain can trigger both physical and mental health complications. During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with chronic diseases have had reduced access to some medications.OBJECTIVE:
To determine the pharmacological management of patients with chronic pain and its continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic.METHODS:
This was a retrospective longitudinal study of the continuity of analgesic use in patients with chronic pain between September 1, 2019 and February 28, 2021 based on a drug dispensing database. Survival analysis was performed until the discontinuation of chronic analgesics.RESULTS:
A total of 12,701 patients who were being treated for chronic pain were identified. Their median age was 70.3 years, and 74.4% were women. The pain of rheumatological origin was the most frequent etiology (46.1%); the most used medications were nonopioid analgesics (78.9%), pain modulators (24.8%) and opioid analgesics (23.3%). A total of 76.1% of the patients experienced interruptions in their management during the study period. The median time to the first interruption of treatment was 5.0 months (95% CI 4.8-5.2). Those who were treated for oncological pain experienced a greater number of interruptions in their management.CONCLUSIONS:
The pharmacological management of patients with chronic pain is heterogeneous, and this real-world study showed that a high proportion of patients experienced an interruption of pain management during the 12 months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Chronic Pain
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Etiology study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Journal:
Pain Pract
Journal subject:
Neurology
/
Psychophysiology
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Papr.13197
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