Costs of Gastrointestinal Events After Outpatient Opioid Treatment for Non-Cancer Pain

BackgroundGastrointestinal (GI) adverse effects are common with oral opioid treatment.ObjectiveTo estimate the costs associated with GI events after oral short-acting opioid treatment, from the payer perspective.MethodsMedical and pharmacy claims from the PharMetrics’ Patient-Centric Database were used to identify opioid-naive patients who received a new prescription for oxycodone- or hydrocodone-containing immediate-release oral products between 2002 and 2006. Health-care resource use and costs were determined for patients with claims associated with ICD-9 CM (International Classification of Diseases—9th Clinical Modification) codes for nausea/vomiting (787.0x), constipation (564.0x), bowel obstruction (560, 560.1, 560.3, 560.39, 564.81), or antiemetic and laxative prescriptions during the 3 months after opioid index prescription and compared with patients without these GI event medical or prescription claims. Resource use data were compared using negative binomial regression and cost data were compared ...