TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of opioids in a danish population-based cohort of cancer patients
AU - Jarlbaek, Lene
AU - Andersen, Morten
AU - Hallas, Jesper
AU - Engholm, Gerda
AU - Kragstrup, Jakob
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by grants from the Danish Cancer Society. There is no conflict of interest.
PY - 2005/4
Y1 - 2005/4
N2 - Until recently, Denmark has had the highest use of strong opioids per capita in the world. Our aim was to analyze cancer patients' use of opioids in this population by linkage between the Danish Cancer Register and a prescription database. The changes in opioid use from 1994 to 1998 in the entire cohort of cancer patients (n = 24,190) in a Danish county (n ∼ 470,000) were analyzed. The overall consumption of opioids increased from 20 kg to 37 kg oral morphine equivalents (omeq) per year. The average consumption increased from 7.6 to 10.7g omeq/opioid user/year. The annual proportion of users increased from 17% to 20%. The proportion of patients who were alive 2 years after their first opioid prescription increased from 38% to 55%. Increased awareness towards pain treatment, with earlier initiation of opioid treatment and higher doses to the cancer patients, could be major explanations for the increase in the cancer patients' use of opioids.
AB - Until recently, Denmark has had the highest use of strong opioids per capita in the world. Our aim was to analyze cancer patients' use of opioids in this population by linkage between the Danish Cancer Register and a prescription database. The changes in opioid use from 1994 to 1998 in the entire cohort of cancer patients (n = 24,190) in a Danish county (n ∼ 470,000) were analyzed. The overall consumption of opioids increased from 20 kg to 37 kg oral morphine equivalents (omeq) per year. The average consumption increased from 7.6 to 10.7g omeq/opioid user/year. The annual proportion of users increased from 17% to 20%. The proportion of patients who were alive 2 years after their first opioid prescription increased from 38% to 55%. Increased awareness towards pain treatment, with earlier initiation of opioid treatment and higher doses to the cancer patients, could be major explanations for the increase in the cancer patients' use of opioids.
KW - Cancer pain
KW - Danish Cancer Register
KW - OPED
KW - Opioids
KW - Oral morphine equivalents
KW - Pain treatment
KW - Pharmacoepidemiological
KW - Population-based
KW - Tramadol
KW - Transdermal fentanyl
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=18044363090&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2004.07.010
DO - 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2004.07.010
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 15857736
AN - SCOPUS:18044363090
VL - 29
SP - 336
EP - 343
JO - Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
JF - Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
SN - 0885-3924
IS - 4
ER -