Motor vehicle crash victims with physical injury are likely to receive prescription opioids and benzodiazepines. Potential mental trauma and lack of primary treating physician contribute to the risk of adverse opioid outcomes for this group. The purpose of this study is to characterise opioid and benzodiazepine prescribing after road traffic injury.
Individuals who claimed Transport Accident Commission compensation for a noncatastrophic injury that occurred between 2010 and 2012 in Victoria, Australia and who provided consent for pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) linkage were included (n = 734). PBS records dating between 12 months preinjury and 18 months postinjury were provided by the Department of Human Services.
In the year before injury, 10.5% of participants received prescription opioids; after injury, 45.1% of hospitalized and 21.1% of nonhospitalized participants received opioids. Benzodiazepines were used by 4.8% preinjury, and 7.0% and 7.4% postinjury (with and without hospitalization, respectively). Postinjury, 39% of opioid use and 73% of benzodiazepine use was potentially unrelated to the injury.
Prescription opioid and benzodiazepine before road traffic injury was substantial: the significance of postinjury prescription drug use cannot be established without taking preinjury use into account. It may be beneficial for pain medication to be managed by a pain treatment coordinator, in this injured population with high rates of pre-existing opioid and benzodiazepine use.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
2
5%
Nursing and Health Professions
2
5%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
2
5%
Other
9
20%
Unknown
11
25%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 22. 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 12 July 2021.
All research outputs
#2,098,548
of 33,738,238 outputs
Outputs from Pain Medicine
#401
of 3,614 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#29,461
of 452,211 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Pain Medicine
#12
of 85 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,738,238 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,614 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 452,211 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 85 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.
