To examine sleep disturbances in the POINT cohort study consisting of participants prescribed long-term opioids for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP), and to examine the relationship between sleep and measures of pain, physical and mental health, substance use and medication use at the baseline interview.
A convenience sample of 1243 participants with current CNCP and prescription opioid use were recruited from community settings and underwent a structured interview examining subjective sleep symptoms (Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Sleep Scale and the Sleep Problems Index (SLP-9)), pain severity and interference using the Brief Pain Inventory, mental and physical health symptoms, recent substance and medication use. Linear regression models assessed independent predictors of SLP-9 scores.
Median hours of sleep per night was 6 (IQR 5-7.5) with 26% reporting optimal sleep (seven to eight hours), and a mean SLP-9 score of 47.3 (SD 20.9). On multivariate analysis, age, frequent/severe headaches, total BPI pain severity and pain interference scores, moderate to severe anxiety or depression, daily tobacco use and past week benzodiazepine use were significant predictors of SLP-9 scores and sleep quality. Higher MOS respiratory impairment was observed in males, those with high BMI, frequent/severe headaches, high pain interference scores and in patients taking anticonvulsants and antipsychotic medications. Opioid use was not associated with SLP-9 or respiratory sleep impairment.
High levels of sleep problems were reported in this community sample of CNCP patients, and were associated with mental health problems and increased medication use. Non-medication approaches to addressing sleep problems should be prioritised in this population.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. 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 06 April 2021.
All research outputs
#10,317,594
of 34,360,257 outputs
Outputs from Clinical journal of pain
#968
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Outputs of similar age
#105,455
of 336,109 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Clinical journal of pain
#20
of 37 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,360,257 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 69th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,288 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 57% of its peers.
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