Background:Chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) and chronic opioid therapy (COT) commonly coexist with comorbid depression and anxiety. We investigated the prevalence of depression and anxiety and their correlates at the time of controlled substance agreement (CSA) enrollment among patients with CNCP and a history of depression or anxiety on COT.Methods:Retrospective analysis of 1066 patients in a Midwest primary care practice enrolled in CSAs for COT between May 9, 2013, and August 15, 2016. Patients with self-reported symptoms or a clinical history of depression or anxiety were screened at CSA enrollment using the Patient Health Questionnaire–9 item scale and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder–7 item scale.Results:The percentage of patients screening positive for depression and anxiety at CSA enrollment was 15.4% and 14.4%, respectively. Patients screening positive for depression or anxiety were more likely to be younger, unmarried, unemployed, and live alone compared to patients not screening positive. Patients screening positive for depression or anxiety were more likely to smoke cigarettes and report concern from friends or relatives regarding alcohol consumption. Compared to patients screening negative, patients screening positive for depression had higher odds of receiving opioid doses of ≥50 morphine milligram equivalents per day (adjusted odds ratio: 1.62; 95% confidence interval: 1.01-2.58).Conclusion:Anxiety and depression are prevalent at enrollment in CSAs among patients receiving COT. Future research is needed to determine whether recognition of anxiety and depression leads to improved management and outcomes for this population.

Introduction As use of electronic portal communication with healthcare teams increases, processes that effectively recognize messages that contain critical information are needed. This study aims to evaluate whether certain language and other characteristics of patient portal messages are associated with expressions of self-harm and suicidal ideation. Methods Using patient portal messages sent between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2017, we searched for words and letter combinations ‘suicid’ (to identify words suicide and suicidal), ‘depress’ (for depression, depressed, depressing), ‘harm himself’ (or ‘herself ‘or ‘myself’), ‘hurt himself’ (‘herself’ or ‘myself’), ‘kill’, ‘shoot’, ‘cutting’, ‘knife’, ‘gun’, ‘overdose’, ‘over dose’ and ‘jump’. Results Of 831,009 messages, 11,174 messages contained one or more search terms. We manually reviewed 7,736 messages for content expressing self-harm or suicidality. Of the reviewed messages, 3.2% indicated thoughts of self-harm or suicide and 2.2% of messages suggested active suicidality. Of those expressing any thoughts of self-harm or suicide, 13.4% mentioned a specific plan, 20% were passively suicidal. Messages indicating thoughts of self-harm and suicide were more common in patients who were unmarried, non-white and younger than 18 years. Factors significantly associated with thoughts of self-harm were messages addressed to psychiatry or containing the letter combinations ‘suicide’, ‘die’, ‘depress’ and ‘harm/hurt my/her/himself’. Discussion Certain letter combinations and patient portal message characteristics may be associated with expressions of self-harm and suicide. These factors should be considered as we develop systems of effectively screening patient portal messages for critical clinical information.

No abstract