Grant: Project Grant - PA: Patient-Oriented Research: Early-Career Investigator

Canada is experiencing a crisis of opioid use and abuse partially caused by increased prescriptions by doctors; recent data show that approximately 20 Canadians die every day of opioid overdoses. People often receive their first opioid prescription to treat pain after outpatient breast surgery (i.e., total or partial breast resection with same-day discharge), and many misuse these drugs and become addicted. Additionally, many opioid pills prescribed to these patients go unused, and may be diverted and misused by their family members, friends, or other community members. To prevent this problem, the first opioid prescription to treat surgical pain may be prevented by using opioid-free analgesia (i.e., pain treatment using only non-opioid interventions). Prescribing only non-opioid analgesics after surgery is very common in many countries outside of North America; however, few studies have assessed whether opioid-free analgesia is as effective as opioid analgesia after breast surgery. Therefore, the main question that we aim to answer in our study is: For patients who have had outpatient breast surgery, is pain treatment without opioids as good as pain treatment using opioids? We propose a study comparing two groups of patients: one group will receive opioids to treat pain after surgery while the other group will receive only non-opioid interventions. We will assess the impact of these interventions on pain intensity, pain interference with activities, medication side effects, and other outcomes. We have assembled an expert team of scientists, surgeons, pain specialists, and patients to ensure the success of this study. Our results will provide important information to guide surgeons' decisions to prescribe (or not to prescribe) opioids. In the future, if opioid-free analgesia is found to be effective, doctors may be able to substantially reduce the prescription of opioids after breast surgery and prevent more people from misusing opioids.