Opioids and fibromyalgia: frequency of use and factors associated with increased consumption in patients remitted to a tertiary care center

Abstract Background Opioids are not recommended for fibromyalgia. Objective To investigate the frequency of opioid use in a large cohort of fibromyalgia patients and to identify factors associated with opioid consumption. Methods A retrospective, observational study of a large fibromyalgia cohort in a tertiary care center. We assessed fibromyalgia severity, functional capacity, anxiety, depression, drugs consumption and the patient’s impression of change. We compared strong opioid consumers (SOC) and non-SOC. Inferential statistical and logistic regression analysis were used to identify factors associated with opioid consumption, and ANOVA for repeated measurements. Results We found a prevalence of 9.2% of SOC (100 patients) among 1087 patients in the cohort. During the last four years there was a significant increase on the incidence of SOC up to 12.8% (p = 0.004). There were no differences in demographic variables between SOC and non-SOC. Clinical variables were significantly more severe in SOC, and they consumed more non-opioid drugs (p