A recent study examined the racial differences in pain treatment for patients visiting emergency rooms.
The study, published in PLOS One, was authored by Astha Singhal, MD, an associate professor of health policy and services at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine.
Here is what you need to know:
1. The growing problem of prescription drug abuse has caused emergency room physicians to rely on "subjective clues" such as race and ethnicity when prescribing opioids for pain-related complaints.
2. The study examinedracial-ethnic disparities in opioid prescriptions during emergency department visits for pain-related complaints that are often associated with drug-seeking behavior.
3. Using data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2007 to 2011, Dr. Singhal examined the odds that opioids were prescribed during emergency room visits to non-elderly adults between the ages of 18- and 65-years-old for "definitive conditions."
4. Dr. Singhal and her two coauthors found that non-Hispanic blacks were less likely to receive opioid prescriptions at the discharge of their emergency room visit for back and abdominal pain, compared to non-Hispanic whites. Numbers related to toothaches, fractures and kidney stones were unaffected.
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