Posted by Phillipa on June 17, 2009, at 21:16:44
Didn't know there was a secondary fibromyalgia. Phillipa
From Reuters Health Information
Opioids Widely Used for Fibromyalgia Despite Absence of Efficacy Proof
COPENHAGEN (Reuters Health) Jun 16 - More than one third of fibromyalgia patients receiving medical care in the U.S. are prescribed opioids despite a lack of evidence of substantial efficacy for this disease and despite their potential for addiction and abuse, investigators announced here at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) 2009.Ariel Berger, MPH, with Policy Analysis Incorporated in Brookline, Massachusetts, and associates documented patterns of opioid use using information obtained from a large health insurance database.
The analysis included nearly 52,000 patients who had submitted at least one insurance claim for fibromyalgia in each year of the study, conducted between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2007.
The data showed that almost 40% of fibromyalgia patients received opioids in any given year, predominantly short-acting agents. The mean number of prescriptions for opioids ranged from 8.0 during 2005 to 8.3 during 2007.
Fibromyalgia patients receiving opioids also used high levels of other medications, including antidepressants (about 63% annually) and sedatives and hypnotics (about 33% annually).
Berger emphasized that the data must be interpreted with caution given potential study limitations. "For example, fibromyalgia patients were identified based on electronic healthcare claims data, which introduces the possibility that clinical information is limited and/or that some diagnoses may not be accurate," he said "Also, a diagnosis of primary versus secondary fibromyalgia cannot be ascertained based on these data."
He also pointed out that information on opioids was limited to those dispensed at retail pharmacies. "Thus, the results underestimate total medication use to the extent that such therapy is administered elsewhere," he said. "For example, a patient might receive an injection while hospitalized."
Fibromyalgia affects about 2% to 4% of the general population and 5% of patients in general medical practice in the U.S., Berger added.
poster:Phillipa
thread:901625
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090611/msgs/901625.html