Clinician Counseling and Patient Storage and Disposal Practices for Opioids Prescribed for Acute Pain: A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study

In a multicenter cohort of 1708 opioid-naive acute-pain patients, most reported no counseling on opioid disposal (65.8% and 68.2%) and infrequent locked storage (75.1%).

• Why it matters: Unused acute-pain opioids can be misused, accidentally ingested, or diverted, yet patients’ counseling and storage/disposal behaviors are poorly characterized.
• What they did: From September 2020 to March 2023, opioid-naive patients in emergency, primary/urgent care, inpatient, and dental settings reported counseling receipt and their opioid storage, use, and disposal practices.
• The result: Among 929 reporting leftovers, 66.5% did not use all prescribed opioids; of 618 with leftovers, 42.8% kept them, often to have medication available for the same condition (62.1%).

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.