Factors that Influence Physician Identification of Potential Opioid Misusers

Chronic pain and subsequent prescription opioid misuse are common issues. When prescribing opioid analgesics, emergency medicine providers may subconsciously screen patients by specific patient behaviors. No previous reports have identified if this occurs or what the characteristics are. To examine factors that emergency medicine providers use to identify potential prescription opioid misusers. We conducted an anonymous survey of emergency medicine providers in a military tertiary care hospital, We created a 13-question survey with fixed response and multiple-answer questions on emergency medicine providers perceptions of hard physicalobjective and soft behavioral signs of opioid misusers. The survey was revised after a pilot sample. EM providers use specific signs and behaviors to detect opioid misuse and to support their opioid prescription decision. Irrespective of experience, almost 50 take into account information in the medical record.