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Some women who are prescribed opioids and other drugs to ease pain after mastectomy and reconstructive surgery continue to use those medications, researchers reported.
In a large database analysis, new persistent use of opioids – defined as filling at least two prescriptions following surgery -- was observed among 13.1% of the women who underwent the breast cancer surgery, said Jacob Cogan, MD, of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical School in New York City.
In addition, about 6.6% of women in the study who had been prescribed another class of addictive substances -- sedatives or hypnotics -- to help them deal with anxiety or insomnia after the surgery became persistent users of those medications as well, he said at at the virtual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).