A related study presented at the conference suggests that common surgeries may serve as a gateway to nonmedical opioid use in adolescents. It found that adolescents commonly fill post-surgery opioid prescriptions for months beyond the typical recovery time.

Dr. Calista Harbaugh, from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and the Michigan Opioid Engagement Network, and colleagues retrospectively studied more than 88,000 privately insured patients (mean age, 17) who underwent one of 13 common surgeries for this age group. None of the patients had been prescribed an opioid before surgery. The incidence of new, persistent opioid use after surgery was 4.8 percent, ranging from 2.7 percent to 15.2 percent across procedures, compared to 0.1 percent in a nonoperative control sample.

Persistent opioid use was defined as continued prescription refills 90 to 180 days after surgery and beyond what is expected after routine surgery. Colectomy, supracondylar fracture fixation, cholecystectomy, and umbilical or epigastric hernia repair were among the procedures associated with the highest risk of new, persistent opioid use.

“This is a hypothesis-generating study. We can’t say if these adolescents are taking the opioids; we can only say they are filling the prescriptions. But we can assume that if they are getting a refill, they probably use them, store them, or give them to someone else,” Dr. Harbaugh noted in an interview with Reuters Health.

“The fact that this many kids are getting additional opioids this far after surgery means we need to be aware of this and watch these kids to make sure it doesn’t lead to a problem in the future. We also need to make sure we communicate among specialties” she added.