AGA. US: Chronic narcotic use is more than twice as prevalent in children with
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), compared with children without this
disease, according to a new study1 published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.
“Chronic narcotic use is common in pediatric IBD patients, particularly
among those with anxiety and depression,” said lead study author Jessie
P. Buckley, PhD, MPH, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. “Describing the characteristics of children with IBD using
long-term narcotics is important to define the magnitude of this problem
in the pediatric population and to identify potential strategies or
interventions to reduce narcotic use.”
Researchers conducted a large cross-sectional study to compare chronic
use of narcotics among children with IBD and children in the general
population, and investigate factors associated with narcotic use in the
pediatric IBD population. The study included 4,344 IBD children (younger
than 18 years old), each matched for age, sex and region with five
children without IBD (a total of 21,720 children). The study found that
5.6 percent of IBD children had at least three prescriptions for a
narcotic medication during a two-year period, compared with 2.3 percent
of children without IBD.
Compared with the general population, chronic narcotic use was
significantly higher for pediatric IBD patients with psychological
impairment than those without. Older age, increased health-care
utilization, fracture and psychological impairment were also strongly
associated with chronic use of narcotics among children with IBD.
Increased use of narcotics with greater health-care utilization
indicates that narcotic use may be a marker for severe disease.
Narcotics may be prescribed to patients with IBD, which encompasses
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, for temporary pain relief, such
as to treat an acute flare or alleviate pain after surgery. Long-term
narcotic use among children with IBD is not recommended because of GI
side effects, disease complications and potential for dependency.
Read more about this study on the AGA Journals Blog.
Learn more about IBD in the AGA patient brochure.
Support for this study was provided by GlaxoSmithKline.
1Buckley, Jessie P., et al. Prevalence of Chronic Narcotic Use Among Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Volume 13(2): 310-315.e2, http://www.cghjournal.org/article/S1542-3565(14)01142-2/abstract