Open AccessPrescribing for painful conditions in adult and elderly patients in general practice: A report from the Møre & Romsdal Prescription Study
Author(s) -
Harald A. Nygaard,
Jørúnd Straand
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
norsk epidemiologi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1891-5477
pISSN - 0803-2491
DOI - 10.5324/nje.v8i2.449
Subject(s) - medical prescription , medicine , codeine , analgesic , general practice , osteoarthritis , physical therapy , epidemiology , chronic pain , musculoskeletal pain , alternative medicine , anesthesia , family medicine , morphine , nursing , pathology
Study objectives: Design: Setting: Participants: Main results: Conclusion: Key words: pain; analgesics; general practice; epidemiology; NSAIDs; paracetamolThe appropriateness of the GPs prescribing practice for pain often is open to question, andthis especially refers to the widespread use of NSAIDs for chronic musculoskeletal pain in the elderly, thefrequent use of muscle relaxants for chronic musculoskeletal pain in middle aged women, and the prolongeduse of compound analgesics for almost all diagnoses. Plain paracetamol should probably be prescribedmore often for pain in general practice.The prescribing rates increased with patients' age to the age group 70-79 years. 64% of allprescriptions were for females, who also received more drugs per prescription than males. With increasingpatients' age, the average amount of drugs issued per prescription increased, more prescriptions were repeat,and more were issued during indirect GP-patient contacts. The paracetamol/codeine analgesic was themost frequently prescribed drug, 37.6%, followed by NSAIDs (34.6%) and muscle relaxants (21.8%).Plain analgesics were only issued in 2.8% of the cases. Chronic musculoskeletal pain was the mostcommon diagnostic indication (39.2%, for which NSAIDs were most frequently prescribed), followed byarthritis/ osteoarthritis (18.7%), and back pain (18.0%).156 GPs.A one month survey where more than 95% of the GPs participated and recorded all patient contacts,prescriptions, and diagnoses issued to patients 20 years and over.A prospective prescription study of analgesics due to painful conditions in the county of Møre &Romsdal, Norway.To analyse the general practitioners' (GPs') prescribing patterns for NSAIDs, musclerelaxants, opioids, compound analgesics with codeine, and plain analgesics, issued for: chronic muskuloskeletalpain, arthritis/osteoarthritis, back pain, headache, casualties, malignancies, and unspecific pain.ABSTRACT