Every Social Security disability lawyer we know is paying attention to pain-medication prescriptions in this day and age. Opioid prescriptions are widespread, and disability cases are often linked in one way or another to pain and pain management.
A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), authored by Dr. Chao Zhou, PhD., and Zhou’s colleagues, shows a relationship between economic factors and rates of opioid prescriptions.
Notably, this study is not looking at prescriptions for retirees. The 3.5 million adults whose data was analyzed are all younger than 65, but are medically disabled. These 3.5 million people are not people who have cancer or end-stage renal disease patients.
Dr. Zhou and the CDC doctors went county by county, and looked at factors based on the county of residence.
More than half of the 3.5 million had no opioid prescription. However, 28 percent of those in the study were long-term opioid users, with six or more prescriptions.
Of the people in the study, more opioid prescriptions were written for women than for men. More prescriptions were for White (Caucasian) patients than for other ethnic classifications.
Regarding classification by urban and rural difference, those counties were divided into:
– Large fringe metro (suburbs)
– Micropolitan (small cities)
– Large central metro (large cities)
– Noncore (rural)
Of those four groupings, the lowest incidence of opioid prescriptions were among people living in the “large central metro” and “noncore” counties.
Higher prescribing, according to the study, is happening in counties with higher unemployment and lower median household incomes.
For more information, please see the January 2018 issue of Medical Care, published by Wolters Kluwer.
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