Opioid use in young veterans

Abstract

The prevalence of chronic opioid use in young veterans has been on the rise in recent years. Young veterans receiving care at VAPAHCS have often had multiple opioid prescribers and have trialed multiple opioid analgesics. Many improvements in appropriate monitoring and management of these patients can be made, which may include providing more training to current staff the development of an opioid refill clinic, and greater utilization of the pain management specialists. Further larger study is warranted to identify successful strategies for improving prescribing and monitoring of opioids as well as potential predictors of response to chronic long-acting opioid therapy.