Abstract
BACKGROUND: Studies published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2006 and 2009 ("How Young Adults Obtain Prescription Pain Relievers for Nonmedical Use" and "Trends in Non-medical Use of Prescription Pain Relievers: 2002 to 2007") introduce evidence of a trend of abusing prescribed analgesics. This issue has received little attention and there has been no empirical research into it in the Czech Republic.
AIM: This feasibility study focuses on the identification of evidence for the abuse of opioid analgesics among Czech patients attending centres and outpatient clinics providing (chronic) pain treatment. METHODS: The data were obtained by means of a survey conducted among i) chronic patients treated with opioid analgesic medication for at least two years (N=99) and ii) physicians and nurses working at pain treatment centres and outpatient clinics (N=4).
The processed data are mostly presented using graphs and contingency tables with the appropriate p-values of a chi-square test for the independence of two categorical variables. RESULT: We identified that 20,5 % of the patients (n=17) in the sample (N=83) had used prescribed opioid analgesics without medical indication, 22,9 % of the patients (n=19) had combined opioid analgesics with alcohol, and 20,5 %, of the patients (n=17) had combined prescribed medication with drugs other than alcohol.
In addition, this feasibility study allowed us to formulate recommendations for further studies, such as a consideration of a different data collection design. CONCLUSION: We were able to address the problem of combining prescribed opioid analgesics and over-the-counter medications with alcohol among the 50-64 age group.