One-year follow-up after the first prescription of strong analgesics outside hospital.

To evaluate the risk of addiction after prescription of a strong analgesic, we followed 90 patients during the year after they had received a prescription for a strong analgesic for the first time in September 1989 in North Jutland County, Denmark. The study was based on copies of all prescriptions of strong analgesics; these are sent to the National Health Service, which is responsible for the control of the prescribing of strong analgesics. Seven patients were excluded because the data registration was incomplete, while there was valid data on the remaining 83 patients, 12 of whom had cancer. All the cancer patients and 14 other patients died during the follow-up period. Of the remaining 57 patients, seven were still being treated (12.3%; 95 confidence limits: 5.1-23.7%) with strong analgesics. Addiction was not suspected by their general practitioners in any of these seven as the main reason for continued treatment with strong analgesics. We therefore conclude that addiction is rare after a first prescription of strong analgesics.