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 ...

Verfasser: Ajda Bedene
Anita Strmljan
Eveline L. A. van Dorp
Mitja Udovič
Willem M. Lijfering
Marieke Niesters
Frits R. Rosendaal
Albert Dahan
Jurij Fürst
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Reihe/Periodikum: Frontiers in Pain Research, Vol 2 (2021)
Verlag/Hrsg.: Frontiers Media S.A.
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-29170791
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.