TY - JOUR T1 - Examining opioid prescribing trends for non-cancer pain using an estimated oral morphine equivalence measure. A retrospective, cohort study between 2005 and 2015 JF - BJGP Open JO - BJGP Open DO - 10.3399/bjgpopen20X101122 SP - bjgpopen20X101122 AU - Emma Davies AU - Bernadette Sewell AU - Mari Jones AU - Ceri J Phillips AU - Jaynie Y Rance Y1 - 2020/11/10 UR - http://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2020/11/05/bjgpopen20X101122.abstract N2 - Background Prescription of opioid medicines has markedly increased in the United Kingdom, over the last 20 years, despite a lack of supporting evidence for use in commonly occurring, painful conditions. Prescribing is often monitored by counting numbers of prescriptions dispensed, but this may not provide an accurate picture of clinical practice. Aim To use an estimated oral morphine equivalent (OMEQe) dose to describe trends in opioid prescribing in non-cancer pain and explore if opioid burden differed by deprivation status. Design and setting Retrospective cohort study using cross-sectional and longitudinal trend analyses of opioid prescribing data from Welsh Primary Care General Practices, using data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Method An estimated oral morphine equivalence (OMEQe) measure was developed and used to describe trends in opioid burden over the study period. OMEQe burden was stratified by 8 drug groups, based on usage and deprivation. Results An estimated 643,436,843 milligrams OMEQe was issued during the study. Annual number of prescriptions increased 44% between 2005 and 2015 whilst total daily OMEQe per 1000 population increased by 94.7%. The most deprived areas of Wales had 100,711,696 milligrams more OMEQe prescribed than the least deprived over the study period. Conclusions Over the study period, OMEQe burden nearly doubled, with disproportionate OMEQe prescribed in the most deprived communities. Using OMEQe provides an alternative measure of prescribing and allows easier comparison of the contribution different drugs make to the overall opioid burden. Key words: Primary care; social deprivation; cohort studies; opioid prescribing; primary care. ER -