Patient Perceptions About Opioid Risk Communications Within the Context of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Opioid overdose rates continue to increase, and extant literature suggests that many individuals who use heroin were first introduced to opioids through a medical prescription. Objective: To explore patient experiences related to decisions regarding analgesia after an emergency department visit within the context of a randomized clinical trial aimed to test the efficacy of risk communication interventions on treatment preference, risk recall, and use of opioids. Design, Setting, and Participants: This qualitative study of 36 patients making decisions regarding analgesia included qualitative interviews with participants in 2 risk intervention groups. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and edited to remove identifying information to protect the confidentiality of participants. Interviews were conducted from June 4, 2019, to August 6, 2019. We conducted thematic analysis from August to December 2019 using a mixed inductive and deductive approach. Participants received $20 in compensation. The study was conducted in 4 geographically diverse emergency departments in the United States. Participants were adults presenting to the emergency department with either musculoskeletal back or neck pain or kidney stone-related pain. Eligibility criteria included being aged 18 to 70 years, capable of providing informed consent, English speaking or having English comprehension, eligible for emergency department discharge within 24 hours of enrollment, and able to access email or a smartphone. Interventions: Participants enrolled from the main randomized clinical trial received 1 of 2 risk interventions: a probabilistic opioid risk tool or a narrative-enhanced probabilistic risk tool (ie, participants viewed eight 1- to 3-minute short videos of patients discussing their experiences with pain treatment and positive and negative experiences with opioid use). Main Outcomes and Measures: Factors reported by participants to have influenced their decision-making regarding acute pain and treatment. Results: Thirty-six participants were interviewed, 18 in the group who received the probabilistic risk tool alone and 18 in the group who received the additional narrative-enhanced probabilistic risk tool intervention. The median age was 38 years (range, 21-67 years), 22 individuals were female (61%), 14 were Black or African American (39%), and 14 were White (39%). Five themes emerged from the analysis in the following domains: the factors associated with the risk interventions; clinician paternalism; analgesia attributes and previous experiences; individual self-identity, attitudes, and values; and perceptions of clinician bias. Conclusions and Relevance: Most participants commented on the powerful lessons they learned from the risk interventions. More research is needed to understand how patients incorporate risk information into their decision-making process.

Patient Preference and Risk Assessment in Opioid Prescribing Disparities: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Although racial disparities in acute pain control are well established, the role of patient analgesic preference and the factors associated with these disparities remain unclear. Objective: To characterize racial disparities in opioid prescribing for acute pain after accounting for patient preference and to test the hypothesis that racial disparities may be mitigated by giving clinicians additional information about their patients' treatment preferences and risk of opioid misuse. Design, Setting, and Participants: This study is a secondary analysis of data collected from Life STORRIED (Life Stories for Opioid Risk Reduction in the ED), a multicenter randomized clinical trial conducted between June 2017 and August 2019 in the emergency departments (EDs) of 4 academic medical centers. Participants included 1302 patients aged 18 to 70 years who presented to the ED with ureter colic or musculoskeletal back and/or neck pain. Interventions: The treatment arm was randomized to receive a patient-facing intervention (not examined in this secondary analysis) and a clinician-facing intervention that consisted of a form containing information about each patient's analgesic treatment preference and risk of opioid misuse. Main Outcomes and Measures: Concordance between patient preference for opioid-containing treatment (assessed before ED discharge) and receipt of an opioid prescription at ED discharge. Results: Among 1302 participants in the Life STORRIED clinical trial, 1012 patients had complete demographic and treatment preference data available and were included in this secondary analysis. Of those, 563 patients (55.6%) self-identified as female, with a mean (SD) age of 40.8 (14.1) years. A total of 455 patients (45.0%) identified as White, 384 patients (37.9%) identified as Black, and 173 patients (17.1%) identified as other races. After controlling for demographic characteristics and clinical features, Black patients had lower odds than White patients of receiving a prescription for opioid medication at ED discharge (odds ratio [OR], 0.42; 95% CI, 0.27-0.65). When patients who did and did not prefer opioids were considered separately, Black patients continued to have lower odds of being discharged with a prescription for opioids compared with White patients (among those who preferred opioids: OR, 0.43 [95% CI, 0.24-0.77]; among those who did not prefer opioids: OR, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.23-0.89]). These disparities were not eliminated in the treatment arm, in which clinicians were given additional data about their patients' treatment preferences and risk of opioid misuse. Conclusions and Relevance: In this secondary analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial, Black patients received different acute pain management than White patients after patient preference was accounted for. These disparities remained after clinicians were given additional patient-level data, suggesting that a lack of patient information may not be associated with opioid prescribing disparities. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03134092.

Stories to Communicate Individual Risk for Opioid Prescriptions for Back and Kidney Stone Pain: Protocol for the Life STORRIED Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND: Prescription opioid misuse in the United States is a devastating public health crisis; many chronic opioid users were originally prescribed this class of medication for acute pain. Video narrative-enhanced risk communication may improve patient outcomes, such as knowledge of opioid risk and opioid use behaviors after an episode of acute pain. OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to assess the effect of probabilistic and narrative-enhanced opioid risk communication on patient-reported outcomes, including knowledge, opioid use, and patient preferences, for patients who present to emergency departments with back pain and kidney stone pain. METHODS: This is a multisite randomized controlled trial. Patients presenting to the acute care facilities of four geographically and ethnically diverse US hospital centers with acute renal colic pain or musculoskeletal back and/or neck pain are eligible for this randomized controlled trial. A control group of patients receiving general risk information is compared to two intervention groups: one receiving the risk information sheet plus an individualized, visual probabilistic Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) and another receiving the risk information sheet plus a video narrative-enhanced probabilistic ORT. We will study the effect of probabilistic and narrative-enhanced opioid risk communication on the following: risk awareness and recall at 14 days postenrollment, reduced use or preferences for opioids after the emergency department episode, and alignment with patient preference and provider prescription. To assess these outcomes, we administer baseline patient surveys during acute care admission and follow-up surveys at predetermined times during the 3 months after discharge. RESULTS: A total of 1302 patients were enrolled over 24 months. The mean age of the participants was 40 years (SD 14), 692 out of 1302 (53.15%) were female, 556 out of 1302 (42.70%) were White, 498 out of 1302 (38.25%) were Black, 1002 out of 1302 (76.96%) had back pain, and 334 out of 1302 (25.65%) were at medium or high risk. Demographics and ORT scores were equally distributed across arms. CONCLUSIONS: This study seeks to assess the potential clinical role of narrative-enhanced, risk-informed communication for acute pain management in acute care settings. This paper outlines the protocol used to implement the study and highlights crucial methodological, statistical, and stakeholder involvement as well as dissemination considerations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03134092; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03134092. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/19496.