Department of Surgery, The Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Department of Public Health Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Am J Med Genet A. 2019 Mar;179(3):397-403. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.61031. Epub 2019 Jan 9.
Against the backdrop of increased opioid prescribing in the United States and the associated high rate of side effects, dependence, and addiction, our study examined how opioids and other medications are being used among persons with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). EDS is a set of heritable connective tissue disorders with high symptom burden, including chronic pain. Prescription medication use among persons with EDS was compared to a cohort of matched controls using 10 years of administrative claims data from a large database of privately insured patients (2005-2014). Our dataset included 4,294 persons with EDS, ages 5-62 years old. In both adults and children, we found that the percentage of persons with a prescription drug claim was higher in the EDS cohort for all prescription drug classes examined. Among children, opioid use was double in the EDS cohort compared to the control group (27.5% vs. 13.5%); in adults, it was nearly double in EDS patients (62% vs. 34.1%). Among persons who were prescribed opioids, those with EDS had higher cumulative dosages over a 2-year time period versus controls. Our study aids in understanding opioid and prescription drug use patterns in a vulnerable population with high symptom burden and chronic pain that is often severe.
在美国阿片类药物处方增加的背景下，副作用、依赖性和成瘾率居高不下，我们的研究调查了埃勒斯-当洛斯综合征（EDS）患者中阿片类药物和其他药物的使用情况。EDS 是一组遗传性结缔组织疾病，具有很高的症状负担，包括慢性疼痛。使用大型私人保险患者数据库的 10 年行政索赔数据（2005-2014 年），将 EDS 患者与匹配的对照组进行比较，评估 EDS 患者的处方药物使用情况。我们的数据集包括 4294 名年龄在 5-62 岁的 EDS 患者。在成年人和儿童中，我们发现，在所检查的所有处方药类别中，EDS 队列中有处方药物的患者比例均高于对照组。在儿童中，EDS 队列中阿片类药物的使用量是对照组的两倍（27.5%比 13.5%）；在成年人中，EDS 患者的使用量几乎是对照组的两倍（62%比 34.1%）。在开具阿片类药物的患者中，与对照组相比，EDS 患者在 2 年的时间内累积剂量更高。我们的研究有助于了解高症状负担和慢性疼痛（通常严重）的弱势群体中的阿片类药物和处方药使用模式。
