Impact of Family History of Substance Abuse on Admission Opioid Dose, Depressive Symptoms, and Pain Catastrophizing in Patients with Chronic Pain

The objectives of this study were to examine association between a family history of substance abuse and admission morphine equivalent dose, depression and pain catastrophizing screening scores, as well as reported personal history of substance use. The retrospective research was completed in an interdisciplinary three-week pain rehabilitation center. The subject cohort included admissions from January through December 2014 with 351 datasets for family history of substance abuse and oral morphine equivalency and 341 for depression, pain catastrophizing and use of substances. Outcome measures included admission self-reported data on family history of substance abuse and past and current substance use, admission morphine equivalency dose, and scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale. One hundred forty-seven patients were using opioid medications on admission and those with a positive family history of substance abuse had an oral morphine equivalency (M = 92.12, SD = 95.32) compared to a negative history (M = 80.34, SD = 64.86); the difference was not statistically significant, t (120.01) =.87, p =.39. Patients with a positive family history reported higher levels of both depression, t (327.40) = 3.15, p =.002 and pain catastrophizing, t (338) = 2.76, p =.01. Those with a positive family history endorsed greater frequency of past alcohol use χ² (1, N = 326) = 6.67, p = 0.1 and marijuana use χ² (1, N = 341) = 4.23, p =.04 and past χ² (1, N = 329) = 9.90, p =.002 and current tobacco use χ² (1, N = 327) = 8.81, p =.003. Use of family history of substance abuse information may help provide data for multimodal treatments of chronic non-cancer-pain. The findings from this study can be used to guide future research.