AHRQ Report on Opioid Use in Older Adults

On Nov. 3, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Program published an evidence review titled, "Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Opioids, Opioid Misuse, and Opioid Use Disorder in Older Adults." The report noted that the literature explicitly addressing opioid use in people over age 60 is sparse. Unfortunately, the studies were not designed to evaluate predictive models or screening tools for clinical decision making and may not be directly applicable to patient care. The AHRQ concluded that more research is needed to establish factors associated with clinically-important, patient-centered opioid-related outcomes in older adults and identify interventions to reduce unnecessary opioid use, opioid-related harms and treatment for opioid use disorder.