Long-term Opioid Therapy, Misuse and Mortality in Patients With Chronic Non-cancer Pain in Germany

Among patients receiving opioids for noncancer pain, recent research in North America showed a strong association between doses and opioid-related mortality, especially at dosages exceeding thresholds recommended in recent guidelines. However, the focus on over-dosage may underestimate overall opioid-related mortality and data on death associated with opioid use in a population-based cohort of chronic noncancer pain patients in Europe is scarce. Especially comparative studies studying the safety of long-term opioid therapy in a real-world setting relative to non-opioid medication for chronic noncancer pain are needed in a European context.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Analgesics, Opioid; Drug: Non-Opioid Analgesic

Detailed Description

This is a cross-sectional observational cohort study between 2012 and 2017 of patients with chronic noncancer pain. The primary objective is to investigate the association between mortality among patients with chronic noncancer pain with long-term opioid-therapy compared to non-opioid pain medication. The data will be retrieved from an anonymized German health claims database including 4,00,000 persons insured by 69 German statutory health insurances. The data set includes 5.0% of the population covered by statutory health insurances from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2017. Only anonymized and aggregated data (no directly or indirectly identifying data) will be extracted.

Patients with headache, diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, migraine, trigeminal neuralgia, atypical facial pain, persistent somatoform pain disorder, polyneuropathies, or diabetes mellitus with neurological complications in at least 3 quarters between 01.01.2012 and their first pain medication claim are analyzed. Patients will be stratified in an opioid and a non-opioid group and will be compared with a propensity score matching approach.

Patients' follow-up period include 5 years after start treatment and chronic pain diagnosis between 01.01.2013 and 31.12.2017. Each patient will be censored at death (death date), switching of study group, 12 months without treatment or followed-up 5 years until last known record for the, whichever happens first. The main analyses will be analyzed with a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 3232

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Germany
  • Stuttgart, Germany, 70469
    • LinkCare GmbH

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The database contains data on around 4 million insured people from 69 German statutory health insurances (SHI). German SHI system comprises of approximately 120 independent health insurance companies. Funds paid by these SHI to any provider of health care (e.g. hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, psychotherapists and physiotherapists) represent almost the complete picture of the total health care costs of individual patients. All health insurance data can be linked to patients' demographics including age and gender. T

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- Patients are only included if they have been diagnosed in at least three quarters in the study period with one of the following diagnoses: R51, R52*, M00*-M99*, G43*-G44*, G50.0 or G50.1, F45.4*, G62*, or E10.4*-E14.4 plus G63.3. At least one diagnoses must be between 1 January 2012 and index treatment and main and secondary hospital diagnoses (i.e. Haupt- und Nebendiagnosen) will be used to include the patients.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with present opioid and non-opioid pain medication prescriptions in 2012 are excluded from analysis (therapy-naïve patients only).
• Cancer patients will be excluded if the cancer diagnosis is accompanied by at least one of the following treatments in the same quarter: radiation therapy or chemotherapy all defined by the OPS codes in. Diagnoses will be assessed via ICD-10 diagnoses during the inclusion period from 1 January 2012 until index treatment and main and secondary hospital diagnoses (i.e. Haupt- und Nebendiagnosen) will be taken into account.
• Palliative care, coded by ICD-10 code Z51.5 or OPS code 8-982*, 8-98e*, 8-98h* before index date is excluded
• Opioid substitution treatment with ICD-10 code Z51.83 in the study period is excluded.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Analgesics, Opioid; Patients are only included if they have been diagnosed in at least three quarters in the study period with one of the following diagnoses: R51, R52*, M00*-M99*, G43*-G44*, G50.0 or G50.1, F45.4*, G62*, or E10.4*-E14.4 plus G63.3. At least one diagnoses must be between 1 January 2012 and index treatment and main and secondary hospital diagnoses (i.e. Haupt- und Nebendiagnosen) will be used to include the patients.	Drug: Analgesics, Opioid; Patients are included in the long-term opioid group if they started an opioid-therapy between 2013 and 2017 and received consecutive prescriptions for opioid medications over a minimum of 3 quarters, over a 60-month period between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2017. The treatment will be assessed using the ATC codes of opioid treatment N02AA01, N02AA05, N02AB03, N02AE01, N02AX02, N02AX01, N02AX06) reported in reimbursed medicines to patients.; Other Names: Opioid Group
Non-Opioid Analgesic; Patients are only included if they have been diagnosed in at least three quarters in 2012 with one of the following diagnoses: R51, R52*, M00*-M99*, G43*-G44*, G50.0 or G50.1, F45.4*, G62*, or E10.4*-E14.4 plus G63.3.At least one diagnoses must be between 1 January 2012 and index treatment and main and secondary hospital diagnoses (i.e. Haupt- und Nebendiagnosen) will be used to include the patients.	Drug: Non-Opioid Analgesic; Patients with non-opioid pain medication are included, if they received a medication therapy with anticonvulsants (gabapentin, pregabalin, carbamazepine), antidepressants or non-opioid analgesics (NSAIDs, Metamizole) over a minimum of 3 quarters, over a 60-month period between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2017. The non-opioid treatment will be assessed using the ATC codes (N03AX12, N03AX16, N03AF01) of treatment reported in reimbursed medicines to patients.; Other Names: Non-Opioid Group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mortality	Primary endpoint is death by any course in the study follow-up. Death will be assessed during the follow-up period by number of patients who deceased during follow-up period (2013 - 2017) via the date of death in German claims data base.	2013 - 2017

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Hospitalization due to any course	Hospitalization will be assessed via the number of hospitalisations (calculated by counting the number of discharge dates (KH_Fall. Entlassungsdatum) in the year of interest, hospitalization rate. The rate of hospitalization will be estimated as the number of patients with at least one hospitalization during the follow-up period divided by person-time of follow-up, censoring at time of death, last known record for the patient in the database, or 31st December 2017 (end of latest data cut), whichever is earlier.	2013 - 2017
Number of ICU-stays	Intensive care unit (ICU-stay) stay is defined as patient's stay based on specialty of departement in hospital (KH_OPS.Fachabteilung = 3600).	2013 - 2017
Hospitalization with to misuse or addiction	The hospitalization with misuse or addiction will be analysed, if principal (main) diagnosis at discharge date between January 1st 2013 and December 31st 2017 contains at least one ICD-10 diagnosis of misuse/addiction: F10* or F11* or F13* or F19* or T40*	2013 - 2017
Number of coding of procedures in hospitals	Coding of procedures in hospitals that indicate number of patients that were hospitalized with severe diseases such as cardiovascular diseases will be assessed via OPS-Codes provided in the protocol	2013 - 2017
Number of patients with a ca misuse or addiction diagnosis in the outpatient sector	The number of patients with a least one coding of ICD 10 codes of a misuse or addiction diagnosis in the outpatient sector will be assessed via number of codings of misuse/addiction (ICD Codes = F10* or F11* or F13* or F19* or T40*) in outpatient sector by general practitioner or a specialist (e.g. psychiatrist), as ensured diagnosis (Diagnosesicherheit='G').	2013 - 2017
Number of sick leave days	Sick leave will be assessed as an absolute number number of days being off work of patients in 2013-2017 .	2013 - 2017
Number of hospital deaths	Hospital deaths will be assessed via reason of discharge = death (Entlassgrund = Tod)	2013 - 2017
Number of main- and secondary discharge diagnoses	Main- and secondary discharge diagnoses from hospital deaths will be assessed as the TOP 20 diagnoses of patients who deceased during a hospital stay	2013 - 2017

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: LinkCare GmbH
• Collaborators: Ruhr University of Bochum; Technical University of Munich; Grünenthal GmbH; Klinikum Saarbrücken
• Investigators: Study Director: Tino Schubert, LinkCare GmbH

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Hauser W, Schubert T, Vogelmann T, Maier C, Fitzcharles MA, Tolle T. All-cause mortality in patients with long-term opioid therapy compared with non-opioid analgesics for chronic non-cancer pain: a database study. BMC Med. 2020 Jul 15;18(1):162. doi: 10.1186/s12916-020-01644-4.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 5, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 31, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): August 31, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 7, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 14, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): December 19, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 4, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 2, 2019
• Last Verified: September 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Physiological Effects of Drugs; Central Nervous System Depressants; Peripheral Nervous System Agents; Sensory System Agents; Narcotics; Analgesics, Opioid; Analgesics; Analgesics, Non-Narcotic
• Other Study ID Numbers: VF_1014_1040_Study Protocol

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No