Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

In 2018, 4460 people lost their lives to opioid related deaths. In addition, there was a 27% increase in hospitalizations related to opioid withdrawal, overdose, intoxication, and psychosis between 2013 and 2017. Although many opioid related hospitalizations are due to opioids obtained outside of the health care system, people report that their first exposure to an opioid was through a personal prescription. The challenge associated with prescription drug misuse is that opioids can be helpful in the management of pain. Opioids are used to manage pain after surgery, and they are often combined with acetaminophen or an anti-inflammatory drugs. Therefore, physicians, dentists and nurse practitioners who prescribe opioids need to balance the treatment of acute pain with the risk of harm associated with long term opioid use and opioid misuse. Some patients who undergo surgery may be at a higher risk than others to have behaviors associated with opioid misuse. Misuse behaviors may include taking opioids for longer than intended, taking opioids more frequently or in ways that were not prescribed, or obtaining opioids from someone other than their health care provider. It is important that members of the health care team conduct an appropriate assessment to determine if a surgical patient is at risk for behaviors associated with opioid misuse. However, there is a lack of standardized tools to guide this assessment. The aim of this proposed planning and dissemination grant is to develop a best practice recommendation document that will provide health care teams with information regarding which factors to assess to help identify the risk of long term opoid use, opioid misuse, and opioid related harms in opioid naïve surgical patients. Recommendations regarding follow-up of patients' who are using opioids to manage pain following discharge from hospital after surgery will also be developed.