Comparison of Two Different Analgesic Prescription Strategies and Healthcare Systems: Slovenia vs. the Netherlands
Background: Prescribing practice of pain medication is changing in the Netherlands; opioids are used more often instead of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), therefore we aimed to compare the use of pain medication with Slovenia which has stringent prescribing rules for strong opioids.Methods: We conducted a cohort study into national prescription databases of the Netherlands and Slovenia covering pharmacy claims between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2019. In the analysis about 17 million Dutch and 2 million Slovenian residents were included.Findings: The use of opioids and NSAI... Mehr ...
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Dokumenttyp: | Artikel |
Erscheinungsdatum: | 2021 |
Reihe/Periodikum: | Frontiers in Pain Research, Vol 2 (2021) |
Verlag/Hrsg.: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
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Schlagwörter: | pain medication / opioid epidemic / pain management / prescription guidelines / European guidelines / Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system / RC346-429 |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Permalink: | https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27190890 |
Datenquelle: | BASE; Originalkatalog |
Powered By: | BASE |
Link(s) : | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpain.2021.723797 |
Background: Prescribing practice of pain medication is changing in the Netherlands; opioids are used more often instead of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), therefore we aimed to compare the use of pain medication with Slovenia which has stringent prescribing rules for strong opioids.Methods: We conducted a cohort study into national prescription databases of the Netherlands and Slovenia covering pharmacy claims between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2019. In the analysis about 17 million Dutch and 2 million Slovenian residents were included.Findings: The use of opioids and NSAIDs was higher in Slovenia than in the Netherlands. More frequent use of opioids in Slovenia could be almost entirely explained by weak opioids (about 6% of the population), whereas they were prescribed 50% less frequently in the Netherlands. The opioid use has increased by about 20% in the Netherlands (4.85 and 6.00% of the population in 2013 and 2018, respectively), and the majority of this increase could be explained by strong opioids (4.05% in 2018), specifically, by oxycodone whose use increased by more than 2-fold between 2013 and 2019. In comparison, oxycodone was seldomly used in Slovenia (about 0.3% of the population received a prescription in a year).Interpretation: When medication use is controlled by stringent prescribing rules, like for strong opioids in Slovenia, the use is lower as compared to when such rules do not exist.