NCT02299024

Prescribing Opioid Pain Relievers in the Emergency Department: Understanding and Optimizing the Encounter

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 278 (actual)
• Sponsor: Northwestern University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The investigators overall study objective is to improve patients knowledge and safe use of opioid pain relievers upon discharge from the Emergency Department.

Detailed description

Recent studies indicate that emergency department (ED) discharge processes - including written and spoken communications - are inadequate, and patients often leave without the knowledge necessary to properly care for themselves. In the context of opioid pain relievers, this lack of knowledge is potentially dangerous, as patients may not possess the requisite knowledge for safe use of their medication or an awareness of the dangers of medication misuse. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of an opioid information sheet and spoken counseling on patient knowledge about opioids and safe use behaviors. The investigators conducted a randomized controlled pilot test of a dual-modality educational intervention (written information sheet and spoken counseling about opioids) to assess if the intervention can increase patient knowledge about opioid pain relievers. These activities were intended to guide future modification of educational interventions and the future development of best practices for emergency physician spoken counseling about opioid pain relievers.

Conditions

• Opioid Use, Unspecified

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Additional Opioid Information	Patients receiving this intervention are given additional information about the opioid pain medication that they are receiving in the form of a one page handout. The hand out was written in a health-literacy appropriate manner. A research assistant read the handout to them out loud, and they were given a copy to take home with them.

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-10-01
• Primary completion: 2013-05-01
• Completion: 2013-05-01
• First posted: 2014-11-24
• Last updated: 2019-08-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States