This study indicates a general concern and reluctance of primary care physicians to manage the prescribing of opioids among their patients with chronic pain and younger providers expressed more concern about opioids than older providers.

There has been a need for a brief assessment tool to determine compliance with use of prescribed opioids for pain. The purpose of this study was to develop and begin the validation of a brief and simple compliance checklist (Opioid Compliance Checklist; OCC) for chronic pain patients prescribed long-term opioid therapy. A review of the literature of opioid therapy agreements led to a 12-item OCC that was repeatedly administered to 157 patients who were taking opioids for chronic pain and followed for six months. Validation of the OCC was conducted by identifying those patients exhibiting aberrant drug-related behavior as determined by any of the following: positive urine toxicology screen, a positive score on the Prescription Drug Use Questionnaire (PDUQ) interview or Current Opioid Misuse Measure (COMM), and/or ratings by staff on the Addiction Behavior Checklist (ABC). Of the original 12 items, 5 OCC items appeared to best predict subsequent aberrant behaviors based on multivariate logistic regression analyses (cross-validated AUC=.67). Although further testing is needed, these results suggest that the OCC is an easy-to-use, promising measure in monitoring opioid adherence among persons with chronic pain.

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