Objective

• To describe the trends in opioid use-volume of prescriptions, dosage and number of patients treated-in a Spanish population (region of Valencia) with more than 4.2 million inhabitants aged 18 years and older.

Increasing Trends in Opioid Use From 2010 to 2018 in the Region of Valencia, Spain: A Real-World, Population-Based Study

• The opioid epidemic has been extensively documented in the United States and Canada, but fewer data are available for Europe.
   
• To describe the trends in opioid use—volume of prescriptions, dosage and number of patients treated—in a Spanish population with more than 4.2 million inhabitants aged 18 years and older.
   
• Conclusions: Even if proportions still seem far from epidemic, urgent research is warranted on the observed patterns of use, their appropriateness and their association with health and safety outcomes, especially for high-use and high-strength drugs.

Funding