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Child health
Cohort study
Legitimate opioid prescription increases the risk for future opioid misuse in some adolescents
  1. Cornelius Groenewald1,
  2. Tonya Palermo1,2,3
  1. 1Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA
  2. 2Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA
  3. 3Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA
  1. Correspondence to: Dr Cornelius Groenewald, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Seattle Children's Hospital, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, MB.11.500, Seattle 98115, Washington, USA; cornelius.groenewald{at}seattlechildrens.org

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2016-102312

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    Commentary on: Miech R, Johnson L, O'Malley PM, et al. Prescription opioids in adolescence and future opioid misuse. Pediatrics 2015;136:1169–77.OpenUrlCrossRef

    Implications for practice and research

    • Clinicians should consider the risk for future opioid misuse when prescribing opioids to adolescents.

    • Nurses should educate adolescents and parents about the risk of opioid prescriptions.

    • Future research should focus on understanding the risk of opioid prescriptions in adolescents without a history of substance use, a group that to date has been received little attention.

    Context

    Opioids are extremely efficacious for management of pain. However, in recent years opioid misuse, abuse, and overdose have reached epidemic proportions.1 Adolescents and young adults are at high risk for opioid misuse, with about 10% of 18-year-olds in the USA reporting opioid misuse in the previous 12 months.2 The study by Miech and colleagues aimed to contribute further data about whether legitimate opioid prescription is an …

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    Footnotes

    • Funding This project was partially supported by National Institutes of Health 2K24HD060068 (TP) and the first author (CG) was supported by National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Institutional Research Training Grant T32GM086270 (TP).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.