Opioid analgesics and chronic non-cancer pain: a prescription for research in primary care

Extract

The opioid epidemic in the USA is now reaching other parts of the world (1–3). From 2001 to 2013, opioid use has more than doubled in North America and Europe (3). In the USA, 53.9% of all opioid prescriptions in 2012 came from primary care physicians (4), a statistic partly due to marketing techniques that targeted primary care in the promotion of OxyContin for non-cancer pain (5). We do not expect big pharmaceutical companies to support solutions to reduce opioid use. Therefore, given the large number of patients currently on opioids in primary care practices, researchers from family medicine and general internal medicine have a responsibility to advance science and develop practices that best balance the need for pain relief against the potential adverse effects of opioids. We argue for five foci to be priority areas in primary care research to reduce the opioid epidemic and improve the safety and outcomes of chronic non-cancer pain treatment.