Abstract
PDF- 2003;6;173-178Prevalence of Illicit Drug use in Patients without Controlled Substance Abuse in Interventional Pain Management
Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, Vidyasagar Pampati, MSc, Kim S. Damron, RN, Carla D. Beyer, RN, BSN, and Renee C. Barnhill, RN, BSN.
Drug abuse with illicit drugs and licit drugs has been increasing steadily over the past decade. A recent National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found statistically significant increases between 2000 and 2001 in the use of multiple drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, and non-medical use of pain relievers and tranquilizers. Prescription controlled substance abuse is a major issue in chronic pain management. Various means suggested to avoid or monitor abuse in patients in treatment include urine/serum drug screening whenever requested, along with other precautions including one prescribing physician and one designated pharmacy, etc. Based on the present evidence, physicians assume that patients adhering to controlled substance agreements and without obvious dependency behavior do not abuse either illicit or licit drugs. Thus, it is accepted that there is no necessity to perform routine urine/drug testing in this specific group of the patient population. One hundred patients undergoing interventional pain management and receiving controlled substances were randomly selected for evaluation of illicit drug abuse by urine drug testing. They were selected from a total of 250 patients who were identified as non-abusers of prescription drugs. Results showed that illicit drug abuse in patients without history of controlled substance abuse was seen in 16 patients. Thirteen of the 16 patients tested positive for marijuana and 3 patients tested positive for cocaine. Only one patient tested positive for a combined use of both marijuana and cocaine. This study showed that, in an interventional pain management setting, there is significant use of illicit drugs (16%) with 13% use of marijuana and 3% use of cocaine in patients who are considered as non-abusers of prescription controlled substances and those who are adherent to controlled substance agreements. However, if cocaine is considered as a hardcore drug in contrast to marijuana, abuse of hardcore illicit drugs is only 3%. Keywords: Drug abuse, illicit drugs, licit drugs, prescription controlled substances, controlled substance agreement, opioid abuse, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine