Papers of the Week

Identifying opioid use disorder (OUD) in patients prescribed opioid therapy for chronic pain is challenging but critically important. Patients may have multiple reasons for taking medications, which they may not reveal if not properly interviewed. In this study, modified Drug Effects Questionnaires (DEQ) were used to assess the liking of and desire to take prescription opioids both for reasons of pain relief and for reasons excluding pain relief. We hypothesized patients would more strongly endorse their medications for reasons of pain relief compared to reasons excluding pain relief, and patients who endorse medications for reasons excluding pain relief may be at higher risk of developing OUD.