Pharmaceutical opioid prescription rates are increasing globally, however knowledge of their long-term effects on mental health, in particular depression remains limited. This study aimed to identify factors associated with the onset of depression post-opioid use that differ to factors associated with depression post-pain.
Participants (N=1418) were a national sample prescribed opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. Age at onset of depression, pain and commencement of opioid medications were collected via structured interview.
Six in 10 (61%) reported lifetime depression; of those, almost half developed depression after pain and after they started opioid medications (48%). Variables associated with post-opioid depression included lower pain self-efficacy and poorer social support, younger onset of opioid use, and difficulties and concerns with opioid medications.
The findings highlight the importance of monitoring for the emergence of mood dysfunction, particularly for those starting opioids for pain at a younger age, and consideration of psychological treatments that address self-efficacy that appears to be associated with post-opioid depression.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 November 2016.
All research outputs
#15,169,949
of 25,374,647 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Affective Disorders
#5,880
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Outputs of similar age
#137,708
of 281,105 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Affective Disorders
#56
of 146 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,647 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 38th percentile – i.e., 38% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 10,146 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.4. This one is in the 40th percentile – i.e., 40% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 146 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its contemporaries.
