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Review
. 2022 Mar 14;11(6):1594.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11061594.

Prevalence of Opioid Use Disorder among Patients with Cancer-Related Pain: A Systematic Review

Céline Preux  1 , Marion Bertin  1 , Andréa Tarot  1 , Nicolas Authier  2   3   4 , Nathalie Pinol  5 , David Brugnon  1 , Bruno Pereira  6 , Virginie Guastella  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Prevalence of Opioid Use Disorder among Patients with Cancer-Related Pain: A Systematic Review

Céline Preux et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: The opioid use disorder is an international public health problem. Over the past 20 years it has been the subject of numerous publications concerning patients treated for chronic pain other than cancer-related. Patients with cancer-related pain are also at risk of opioid use disorder. The primary objective of this literature review was to determine the prevalence of opioid use disorder in patients with cancer-related chronic pain. Its secondary objective was to identify the characteristics of these opioid users.

Methods: This is a literature review of studies published over the last twenty years, from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2020 identified by searching the three main medical databases: Pubmed, Cochrane, and Embase. A meta-analysis took account of between and within-study variability with the use of random-effects models estimated by the DerSimonian and Laird method.

Results: The prevalence of opioid use disorder was 8% (1-20%) and of the risk of use disorder was 23.5% (19.5-27.8%) with I2 values of 97.8% and 88.7%, respectively.

Conclusions: Further studies are now needed on the prevalence of opioid use disorder in patients treated for cancer-related chronic pain. A screening scale adapted to this patient population is urgently needed.

Keywords: cancer; chronic pain; meta-analysis; opioid use disorder; prevalence; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the study selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Use disorder prevalence [18,19,20,21,22].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Risk of use disorder prevalence [19,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Risk of use disorder prevalence according to screening scale: (a) forest plot, (b) funnel plot [18,19,22,23,25,26,27,28,29,30].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Use disorder prevalence by sex: (a) Male; (b) Female [20,22].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Risk of use disorder prevalence by sex. (a) Male [18,20,22,23,25,26,28,29]; (b) Female [18,20,22,23,25,26,28].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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