Pain medications profile
Opiod Use among Nova Scotia Cancer Patients
Using the Nova Scotia Prescription Monitoring Program (NSPMP), Judith Fisher with a larger group of investigators have described opioid prescriptions to all NS cancer patients from 2005 to 2010. This included Nova Scotians who were diagnosed with invasive cancer from 1991 onward.
Linking with the NS Cancer Registry, the research has been able to create pain medication profile for cancer on a population level.
Next steps
The ABC-SC team will analyze this data for breast cancer specific profiles.
NSPMP data advantage
The study has no age restrictions and includes all nursing homes and out-of-hospital prescriptions. Only lower level (e.g. Tylenol 1) pain medications and hospital opiods are excluded.