Is There an Opioid Crisis in Nursing Homes?

In this issue of JAMDA, several articles appear that discuss opioid use in nursing homes. The first, by Roitto et al, found that the prevalence of opioid use in Helsinki nursing homes nearly tripled to 30.2% in 2017. In addition, the concomitant use of psychotropics was common.1 This is consistent with findings from US nursing homes in which nearly one-third of long-stay residents in 2012 received an opioid in a 120-day follow-up period.2 The second study in this issue is by Torchia et al. These study authors examined the new use of opioids after a fragility fracture of the hip, humerus, and radius in US elders.