Opioids Remain at the Top of California Workers’ Comp Drugs
The use of opioids in California workers’ compensation has declined in recent years, along with the associated payments, yet these potentially addictive painkillers remain the number one therapeutic drug group used in the system according to a new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) study.
The distribution of 2014 California workers’ compensation medications by therapeutic group shows opioids accounted for more than a quarter of the prescriptions dispensed to injured workers, well ahead of anti-inflammatories, which accounted for nearly 1 out of 5 prescriptions, followed by musculoskeletal therapy agents, ulcer drugs, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and dermatologicals. All other therapeutic groups together accounted for 20.3% of the 2014 prescriptions, but none of those individual groups represented more than 2.5% of the drugs dispensed in 2014.
Other analyses in the study examine brand vs. generic opioid drug trends; changes in average payments for opioid and non-opioid drugs; the percentage of injured workers who received opioids at various points in the life of a claim; the number of opioid prescriptions per user and how that has evolved over time; and changes in the potency of opioids used in workers’ comp, as measured by the average morphine milligram equivalents per prescription as well as the average morphine equivalents per opioid user.
The results of the study have been released in a CWCI Research Note, “Trends in the Use of Opioids in the California Workers’ Compensation System,” available at www.cwci.org/research.html.
Source: CWIC