Papers of the Week

Chronic pain is common in patients with prescription opioid use disorder (OUD), and pain severity has been shown to predict opioid use for those with chronic pain. However, recent research suggests that focusing on pain status (i.e., the presence or absence of chronic pain) at treatment initiation may not reflect the clinical significance of pain over the long-term course of OUD. Reports of variability in chronic pain and its clinical significance over time have yet to be investigated in patients with prescription OUD. The present study examined variability in chronic pain status from entry into prescription OUD treatment through 3.5-year follow-up. Additionally, we examined the association between concurrent chronic pain and opioid use at three follow-up time points.