Seeing multiple opioid prescribers ‘not necessarily aberrant behaviour’
It's often clinically justified for acute pain, researchers say
Most patients being prescribed opioids by multiple doctors have recently begun treatment and are usually only on the drugs for a short period, suggesting a clinical need rather than doctor-shopping, researchers say.
A review of 3.3 million opioid scripts dispensed in Queensland over two decades found around 10% of patients had received opioids from three or more prescribers.
Patients with multiple prescribers, however, were four times more likely to use the drugs for less than a month than long-term, defined as seven or more months.
The results suggested there was usually a clinical reason for patients seeing several doctors, rather than being the product of “aberrant behaviour”, the researchers said.
