Preoperative factors, including legitimate prescribed opioid use, self-perceived risk of addiction, and depressive symptoms each independently predicted more prolonged opioid use after surgery. Each of these factors was a better predictor of prolonged opioid use than postoperative pain duration or severity.

Objective Preoperative determinants of pain duration following surgery are poorly understood. We identified preoperative predictors of prolonged pain after surgery in a mixed surgical cohort. Methods We conducted a prospective longitudinal study of patients undergoing mastectomy, lumpectomy, thoracotomy, total knee replacement, or total hip replacement. We measured preoperative psychological distress and substance use, and then measured pain and opioid use after surgery until patients reported the cessation of both opioid consumption and pain. The primary endpoint was time to opioid cessation, and those results have been previously reported. Here we report preoperative determinants of time to pain resolution following surgery in Cox proportional hazards regression. Results Between January 2007 and April 2009 we enrolled 107 of 134 consecutively approached patients undergoing the aforementioned surgical procedures. In the final multivariate model, preoperative self-perceived risk of addiction predicted more prolonged pain. Unexpectedly, anxiety sensitivity predicted more rapid pain resolution after surgery. Each one-point increase (on a four point scale) of self-perceived risk of addiction was associated with a 38% (95% CI 3 - 61) reduction in the rate of pain resolution (p= 0.04). Furthermore, higher anxiety sensitivity was associated with an 89% (95% CI 23–190) increased rate of pain resolution (p=0.004). Conclusions Greater preoperative self-perceived risk of addiction, and lower anxiety sensitivity predicted a slower rate of pain resolution following surgery. Each of these factors was a better predictor of pain duration than preoperative depressive symptoms, PTSD symptoms, past substance use, fear of pain, gender, age, preoperative pain, or preoperative opioid use.

Objective We previously reported that increased preoperative Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) scores were associated with a 47% (95% CI 24%–64%) reduction in the rate of opioid cessation following surgery. (1) We aimed to identify the underlying factors of the BDI-II (affective/cognitive vs. somatic) associated with a decreased rate of opioid cessation after surgery. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of the data from a previously reported (1) prospective, longitudinal, observational study of opioid use after 5 distinct surgical procedures (total hip replacement, total knee replacement, thoracotomy, mastectomy, and lumpectomy) in 107 patients. The primary endpoint was time to opioid cessation. After exploratory factor analysis of the BDI-II, mean summary scores were calculated for each identified factor. These scores were evaluated as predictors of time to opioid cessation using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results The exploratory factor analysis produced three factors (self-loathing symptoms, motivational symptoms, emotional symptoms). All three factors were significant predictors in univariate analysis. Of the three identified factors of the BDI-II, only preoperative self-loathing symptoms (past failure, guilty feelings, self-dislike, self-criticalness, suicidal thoughts, worthlessness) independently predicted a significant decrease in opioid cessation rate after surgery in the multivariate analysis (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.75–0.99, p-value 0.037). Conclusions Our results identify a set of negative cognitions predicting prolonged time to postoperative opioid cessation. Somatic symptoms captured by the BDI-II were not primarily responsible for the association between preoperative BDI-II scores and postoperative prolonged opioid use.

These findings suggest that the withdrawal of opioids in a chronic pain sample leads to an acute increase in pain sensitivity.

No abstract