This large national cohort study examined the patterns of analgesic prescriptions for those patients who died six to nine years after being diagnosed with cancer.
Researchers periodically analyzed the prevalence of receiving various pain medications and of sustained opioid use in the first year. Sustained opioid use was defined as > 365 defined daily doses or > 9000 mg oral morphine equivalents over 365 days with prescriptions in all quarters of the 365-day period.
Compared with the general population (age- and gender-adjusted), the prevalence of opioid prescriptions doubled in the first year after diagnosis and remained elevated by approximately 50%. The prevalence of persistent opioid use was threefold among the general population. Approximately 55% of patients with persistent opioid use four years after a cancer diagnosis were co-medicated with high doses of benzodiazepines and / or benzodiazepine-related hypnotics.