Table 3.
The national annual prevalence of current year, 2-year and long-term opioid use among adults with and without chronic pain treatment, 2014–2017
| All adults | Adults with chronic pain1 | Adults with Acute pain | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 231,128,700 | 28,229,123 | 202,899,577 |
| Percent of population | 100.0% | 12.2% | 87.8% |
| Current year opioid use2 | |||
| Adults with opioid use in current year | 30,053,642 | 10,776,936 | 19,276,706 |
| Percent of population | 13.0% | 38.2% | 9.5% |
| 2-year opioid use | |||
| Adults with use in prior and current year (Persister) | 13,580,678 | 6,789,578 | 6,791,100 |
| Percent of population | 5.9% | 24.1% | 3.3% |
| Adults with no use in prior year, use in current year (New Start) | 16,472,964 | 3,987,358 | 12,485,606 |
| Percent of population | 7.1% | 14.1% | 6.2% |
| Adults with use in prior year, no use in current year (Discontinuation) | 18,459,465 | 2,686,438 | 15,773,027 |
| Percent of population | 8.0% | 9.5% | 7.8% |
| Adults with no use in prior and current year (Non-user) | 182,615,592 | 14,765,748 | 167,849,844 |
| Percent of population | 79.0% | 52.3% | 82.7% |
| Long-term opioid use3 | |||
| All adults with long-term use | 6,788,059 | 3,935,246 | 2,852,813 |
| Percent of population | 2.9% | 13.9% | 1.4% |
1Adults treated for conditions associated with chronic pain are identified based on ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM
condition codes associated with medical events. See Table 1. All estimates are nationally representative of the non-institutionalized adult population, excluding cancer
2Current and prior year opioid use refer to opioid use in their year 2 and year 1 of being in MEPS, respectively
3Long-term opioid use is defined as starting opioids before they joined MEPS (two years prior to current year) and still using opioids in both years 1 and 2