AI Article Synopsis

  • Chronic pain exacerbates PTSD symptoms in veterans, leading to a higher likelihood of being prescribed multiple medications that affect the central nervous system (CNS).
  • A study involving over 637,000 veterans showed those with chronic pain had significantly more changes in psychiatric medications (average of 1.8 changes) compared to those without chronic pain (average of 1.6 changes).
  • Veterans with chronic pain were also prescribed more CNS-active medications (average of 2.7) than those without chronic pain (average of 2.0), indicating a need for careful management of their treatment.

Article Abstract

Objective: Chronic pain can worsen PTSD symptomatology and may increase the risk of the prescription of multiple central nervous system (CNS)-active medications. The objective is to determine the impact of chronic pain on the number of CNS medications, including psychiatric medications, as well as the amount of medication changes.

Methods: Veterans Affairs (VA) administrative data were used to identify VA-served Veterans with PTSD (N = 637,428) who had chronic pain (50.3%) and did not have chronic pain (49.7%) in 2020. The outcomes included the number of changes in psychiatric medications and the number of currently prescribed CNS-active mediations during a one-year observation period.

Results: The number of changes in psychiatric medications was significantly higher for those with chronic pain (mean (M) = 1.8) versus those without chronic pain (M = 1.6) (Z = 38.4, < 0.001). The mean number of concurrent CNS-active medications were significantly higher for those with chronic pain (M = 2.7) versus those without chronic pain (M = 2.0) (Z = 179.7, < 0.001). These differences persisted after adjustment for confounding factors using negative binomial regression.

Conclusions: Veterans with comorbid chronic pain and PTSD are at increased risk for a higher number of medication changes and for receiving CNS-active polytherapy.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10380889PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12144763DOI Listing

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