The Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) found that in 27 states they studied, fewer injured workers received opioids in recent years compared with previous years. That doesn’t mean injured workers’ are not still being treated for pain, as non-opioid pain management medications have increased and treatments without medications, like physical therapy, were also more frequently provided. These increases were smaller and did not completely offset the reductions in opioids, so at the end of the study fewer injured workers were receiving pain medications and prescriptions under workers’ comp.

“Interstate Variations in Dispensing of Opioids, 5^th Edition” looked at prescribing patterns of opioids, pain medications and alternative treatments between October 2011 and March 2018 in 27 states. They looked at 757,000 nonsurgical claims with more than seven days of lost time that received at least one prescription under workers’ comp. They found that though opioid prescribing declined it continues to be prevalent in nonsurgical claims with over seven days of lost time. There is still variation in opioid dispensing between states.

Significantly fewer workers received opioid prescriptions through workers’ comp, but the increase in those receiving non-opioid medications was smaller and didn’t offset the reduction caused by fewer opioid prescriptions.

A similar proportion of injured workers in most states studied received some kind of pain treatment, but there was a shift from prescribing pain medications to prescribing non-pharmacologic treatments.

They found that the odds of opioid overdose deaths increased when anticonvulsants like Lyrica and Neurontin were concurrently dispensed with opioids. In four to six percent of claims with opioids anticonvulsants were also dispensed. In states where a higher proportion of claims had a first opioid prescription exceeding 7 or 14 days of supply, the chronic opioid use rate was also higher, meaning injured workers were more likely to receive at least a 60-day supply over a 90-day period.

Read more here and check out the study from WCRI.