The objective of this study was to describe the demographics of opioid abusers,
compare the prevalence rates of selected comorbidities and the medical and drug
usage patterns of opioid abusers with nonabusers (1998 to 2002), and calculate
the healthcare costs from the private payer's perspective. A database of medical
and pharmacy claims of 16 health plans with approximately 2 million enrollees
was used to identify patients with claims associated with ICD-9-CM codes for
opioid abuse. Opioid abusers, compared with nonabusers, had significantly higher
prevalence rates for a number of specific comorbidities. Opioid abusers also
had higher medical and prescription drug utilization levels. Prevalence rates
for inpatient visits for opioid abusers were more than 12 times higher than
nonabusers. Healthcare and drug costs for opioid abusers were also higher than
for nonabusers. The researchers conclude that the high costs of opioid abuse
were driven primarily by high prevalence rates of costly comorbidites and high
utilization rates of medical services and prescription drugs. White AG, Birnbaum
HG, Mareva MN, Daher M, Vallow S, Schein J, Katz N. Adapted from J Manag Care
Pharm. 2005 Jul-Aug;11(6):469-79.
Read more: PMID 15998164
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15998164&query_hl=70
Credit: PubMed, developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information
(NCBI) at the
National Library of Medicine (NLM).
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