Table 4.

Profiles of Opioid Use Among Persons With Prevalent Episodes of Long-Term Opioid Use During 2005^a at Group Health and Kaiser Permanente Northern California

	Group Health			Kaiser Permanente Northern California
	Depressedb (N=2,124)	Non-Depressed (N=3,431)	P value	Depressedb (N=11,307)	Non-Depressed (N=21,881)	P value
Average Prescribed Dose (mg)c	54.1	44.5	<0.001	65.4	48.0	<0.001
Average Daily Dose (mg)d	53.3	39.6	<0.001	62.8	39.6	<0.001
Average Days Supply	304.4	284.3	<0.001	304.5	273.8	<0.001
Percent with Mainly Schedule IIe	49.3%	43.4%	<0.001	25.6%	13.7%	<0.001
Percent with Mainly Long-Acting Schedule II	28.9%	21.0%	<0.001	19.9%	9.5%	<0.001
Percent with 180+ Days Supply Sedative-Hypnotics	35.6%	24.1%	<0.001	41.0%	24.2%	<0.001

^aLong-term opioid use episodes on-going in 2005. Long term use defined as episodes with duration of 90+ days, 10+ fills or days supply of fills 120+ days.

^bDepressed defined as having a documented depression diagnosis in either of the two prior calendar years

^cAverage prescribed dose is the total morphine equivalents for an episode divided by total days supply for the episode, that is, the estimated average daily dose prescribed as opposed to the average daily dose consumed.

^dAverage daily dose is the total morphine equivalents for an episode divided by episode duration in days.

^eSchedule II=morphine sulfate; codeine sulfate; hydromorphone;, meperidine; fentanyl transmucosal; and oxymorphone, oxycodone, morphine sulfate SR; fentanyl transdermal; levorphanol; oxycodone CR; and methadone, hydromorphone SR, oxymorphone SR