COVID-19 did not interrupt the decrease in opioid prescribing for patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) over the past 15 years, new data suggest.
New opioid users for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and fibromyalgia grew from 2006 to a peak in 2018 through 2019 of 4.5, 1.8 and 8.7 new users per 10,000 people per year, respectively (Rheumatology [Oxford]. 2023 Jul 11. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kead346). These numbers fell to 2.4, 1.2 and 5.9,