Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Gadzhanova, Svetla
• Roughead, Elizabeth E
• Pont, Lisa G

Titel

Safety of opioid patch initiation in Australian residential aged care

Ist Teil von

• Medical journal of Australia, 2015-10, Vol.203 (7), p.298-298

Ort / Verlag

Australia

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Objective: To explore opioid use by aged care facility residents before and after initiation of transdermal opioid patches. Design: A cross‐sectional cohort study, analysing pharmacy data on individual patient supply between 1 July 2008 and 30 September 2013. Setting: Sixty residential aged care facilities in New South Wales. Participants: Residents receiving an initial opioid patch during the study period. Main outcome measure: The proportion of residents who were opioid‐naive in the 4 weeks prior to patch initiation was determined. In addition, the patch strength at initiation and the daily dose of transdermal patches and of additional opioids 1 month after initiation were determined. Results: An opioid patch was initiated in 596 of 5297 residents (11.3%: 2.6% fentanyl, 8.7% buprenorphine) in the 60 residential aged care facilities. The mean age at initiation was 87 years, and 74% of the recipients were women. The proportion of recipients who were opioid‐naive before patch initiation was 34% for fentanyl and 49% for buprenorphine. Most were initiated at the lowest available patch strength, and the dose was up‐titrated after initiation. Around 15% of fentanyl users and 10% of buprenorphine users needed additional regular opioids after patch initiation. Conclusions: The results suggest some inappropriate initiation of opioid patches in Australian residential aged care facilities. Contrary to best practice, a third of residents initiated on fentanyl patches were opioid‐naive in the 4 weeks before initiation.