Insights into Critical Care and Post ICU Opiate Administration

Skrobik discusses the study by Wunsch et al which examined whether adult ICU patients, whose ICU opiate prescriptions are estimated at 80%, continue receiving opiates after hospital discharge. The authors conclude an "analgesia-first" approach to ICU sedation does not result in high rates of subsequent long-term opioid use. Their findings echo preliminary results from a US medical unit reporting 7% ICU survivors with opiate prescriptions at hospital discharge and contrast with ICU survivors with traumatic brain injuries, in whom opiate prescriptions were 41% at 1 month and 21% at 12 months after ICU.