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. 2020 Jun:(369):1-8.

Prevalence of Prescription Pain Medication Use Among Adults: United States, 2015-2018

Craig M Hales, Crescent B Martin, Qiuping Gu
  • PMID: 32600518
Free article

Prevalence of Prescription Pain Medication Use Among Adults: United States, 2015-2018

Craig M Hales et al. NCHS Data Brief. 2020 Jun.
Free article

Abstract

Prescription pain medications are used to treat pain due to injury, surgery, and health conditions, such as arthritis and cancer. While opioids may be prescribed together with nonopioid pain medications, nonpharmacologic and nonopioid-containing pharmacologic therapies are preferred for management of chronic pain, where appropriate (1). This report shows the percentage of U.S. adults who, in the past 30 days, used one or more prescription pain medications, used prescription opioid medications, or used nonopioid prescription pain medications (without prescription opioids) in 2015-2018.

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