Penn Medicine professors conducted research that suggests amount of needed opioid usage after a major surgery is determined by a patient's age, history of usage, and other characteristics.
"Previously, our team had used this automated text messaging program to generate procedure-specific guidelines, and these guidelines recommended a default quantity that would cover most patient needs, though most would need less and some needed more. We wanted to use the data to identify some common factors that could guide clinicians to "right size" prescriptions based on a patient’s personal characteristics.", said Kit Delgado.
Anish Agarwal, MD, deputy director of the Penn Medicine Center for Insights to Outcomes and Kit Delgado, MD, director of the Penn Medicine Nudge have conducted research with their colleagues seeking solutions to the recirculation and abuse of unused opioids. One such study pointed out the positive effects of patient feedback and personal characteristics on optimal dosage, according to a report from Penn Medicine.
Agarwal and Delgado used data collected through a text message survey to detect a correlation between personal characteristics and needed opioid dose. Most patients tested had undergone orthopedic and neurosurgery procedures. Overall, patients who hadn’t taken opioids before required less than 5 of the opioid tablets, less than those who had previously taken them according to a report from Penn Medicine.
Researchers believe the results of this study could reduce the circulation and misuse of unused opioids. Two patients' levels of needed pain relief can be largely different. Patients undergoing the same hip surgery needed an average of 5 tablets of opioids for low pain levels and an average of 15 tablets of opioids for high pain level according to a report from Penn Medicine.
Agarwal believes that simply asking patients about their pain levels and history of pain medicine use is a simple method often overlooked when determining proper dosage. He hopes that this feedback from patients can calm physicians concerns about prescribing opioids when necessary and prevent patient misuse.
