Postpartum Opioid Fills Increased With Onset of Pandemic

MONDAY, April 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- There was a significant increase in postpartum opioid fills in association with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online April 3 in JAMA Network Open.

Shelby R. Steuart, from the University of Georgia in Athens, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study involving 460,371 privately insured postpartum women who delivered a singleton live newborn between July 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2020. Postpartum opioid fills were compared before and after March 1, 2020.

The researchers found that the likelihood of filling an opioid prescription was 2.8 percent higher for women who gave birth to a single, live newborn after March 2020 compared with the expected likelihood based on the preexisting trend (forecasted and actual, 35.0 and 37.8 percent, respectively). In addition, the COVID-19 period was associated with an increase in morphine milligram equivalents per day (forecasted and actual mean, 34.1 and 35.8, respectively); number of opioid fills per patient (forecasted and actual, 0.49 and 0.54, respectively); and percentage of patients filling a schedule II opioid prescription (forecasted and actual, 28.7 and 31.5 percent, respectively). Patients who delivered by cesarean birth had larger observed increases than those with vaginal delivery.

"Future research should examine whether changes in postpartum opioid fills after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have continued and whether these changes have translated into increases in opioid misuse, opioid use disorder, and opioid-related overdose among postpartum women," the authors write.

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