Awareness of the potential consequences of alcohol consumption in the context of chronic pain and prescription opioid use.
Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse
; 50(4): 517-524, 2024 Jul 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39079104
ABSTRACT
Background:
Alcohol and prescription opioid use are highly prevalent among chronic pain populations. One-fifth of individuals prescribed opioids report same-day use of alcohol and opioids. Alcohol use and alcohol/opioid co-use can have deleterious pain management and health outcomes. The extent to which individuals with chronic pain are aware of these deleterious outcomes is considerably understudied.Objectives:
To explore individuals' understanding of seven health- and pain-related risks of alcohol/alcohol-opioid use. An exploratory aim was to examine whether greater risk awareness was associated with alcohol/opioid use patterns.Methods:
Participants included 261 adults age ≥21(36.4% women) endorsing current alcohol use, chronic musculoskeletal pain, and opioid prescription who completed an online survey via Amazon Mechanical Turk.Results:
Distribution of the total number of items for which a participant endorsed awareness was as follows zero (10.7%), one (5.0%), two (13.0%), three (13.8%), four (13.8%), five (11.5%), six (10.0%), and seven items (22.2%). Awareness of the health consequences of alcohol/alcohol-opioid use was positively associated with opioid misuse behaviors (ß = .525, ΔR2 = .251, p < .001), and higher-risk alcohol consumption (ß = .152, ΔR2 = .021, p = .011).Conclusion:
Many adults with chronic pain are unaware of the health consequences of alcohol/alcohol-opioid use. Findings of positive covariation between risk awareness and higher-risk alcohol/opioid use suggest that future interventions among this population should go beyond simple risk education and utilize motivational enhancement to help change decisional balance.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Alcohol Drinking
/
Chronic Pain
/
Analgesics, Opioid
/
Opioid-Related Disorders
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States
Country of publication:
United kingdom