Issue Highlights

The opiate epidemic has been declared a national public health emergency. Opiate use is also prevalent in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), with adverse outcomes. In the largest population-based study on trends and impact of opiate use in patients with IBD, Burr and colleagues evaluated 3517 patients with Crohn's disease and 5349 patients with ulcerative colitis, using the UK primary care database, ResearchOne.1 They observed that period prevalence of opiate use in IBD patients increased from 10% in 1990-1993 to 30% in 2010-2013; estimated 26% of patients with Crohn's disease and 20% with ulcerative colitis received opiate prescriptions within 5 years of diagnosis.

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