One in six admitted patients with low back pain received high daily opioid dosage in Australian hospitals: a cross-sectional study
Qiuzhe Chen, Christina Abdel Shaheed, Chung-Wei Christine Lin, Chris G Maher, Gustavo C Machado · 2026
Read One in six admitted patients with low back pain received high daily opioid dosage in Australian hospitals: a cross-sectional study by Qiuzhe Chen, Christina Abdel Shaheed, Chung-Wei Christine Lin, Chris G Maher, Gustavo C Machado (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13393623.txt.
Description
Qiuzhe Chen and four co-authors report a 2026 study of opioid use for back pain in Australian hospitals. Strong pain drugs are often given to patients admitted with low back pain, yet high daily doses carry real risks. The team asked how much patients actually received, and which patients were most likely to get high doses.
The researchers read records from three public hospitals in Sydney, covering thousands of emergency visits from 2016 to 2021. Nearly all admitted patients received opioids, and about one in six got a high daily dose. High doses were more common for younger patients, men, patients from poorer areas, and those found to have a serious cause for their pain. The authors call for wider use of proven non-drug and non-opioid options to bring these doses down.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Qiuzhe Chen, Christina Abdel Shaheed, Chung-Wei Christine Lin, Chris G Maher, Gustavo C Machado |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 36 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |