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Opioid deprescribing in long-term care in Ontario: a comparison of resident and facility characteristics

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Residents of long-term care (LTC) homes have potentially painful conditions and are prescribed opioids to manage their pain, despite the risks associated with the use of these high-risk medications. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to describe the associations between resident and facility characteristics of residents prescribed long-term opioid therapy and those who remained on opioids or had opioids deprescribed. We conducted a retrospective cohort study utilizing health administrative databases housed within ICES. Our cohort included 26,592 of 121,564 LTC residents (21.9%) of Ontario LTC homes who were prescribed long-term opioid therapy at cohort inception. Of these residents, 4,299 (16.2%) residents had opioids deprescribed during the follow-up period. Opioid deprescribing was associated with younger age, high comorbidity, and co-prescription with benzodiazepines and gabapentinoids. Our findings suggest that there is variation in the characteristics of residents who continued long-term opioid therapy and those who subsequently had opioids deprescribed, and these characteristics need to be considered as part of individualized pain management plans of care.

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Rochon A, Almost J, Li W, Seitz D, Tranmer J. Geriatr Nurs. 2023; 53:25-32. Epub 2023 Jul 6.

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