LAUSR

Pain is a common symptom experienced by patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA). Emerging data indicate IA pain treatment focuses on prescribing analgesics despite an absence of evidence for long-term efficacy. Delivering optimal, equitable IA pain care in England requires understanding current practice. To address this, we evaluated analgesic prescribing in patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) contributing data to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum, a primary care electronic health record database covering 20% of England. Cross-sectional analyses (2004-2020) evaluated the annual prevalence of analgesic prescriptions in patients with RA/PsA/axial SpA. These were reported stratified by age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation, and geographical region. Analgesic prescriptions were classified using Bedson et al’s hierarchical system with an additional gabapentinoid group. Joinpoint regression models evaluated time-points when a significant change in the trends of prescription annual prevalence occurred. Although declining over time, the annual prevalence of analgesic prescriptions remained high (84.2% [95% CI 83.9, 84.5] in 2004; 64.5% [95% CI 64.2, 64.8] in 2020). In 2004, oral NSAIDs were the commonest analgesic (prevalence 56.1% [95% CI 55.8, 56.5]). By 2020, this fell to 22.3% (95% CI 22.1, 22.6) with opioids being the commonest analgesic (prevalence 39.0% [95% CI 38.7, 39.2]). Most opioid prescriptions were “strong/very strong” and long-term. Annual prevalence of non-NSAID analgesic prescriptions was highest in RA and of NSAIDs was highest in axial SpA. The annual prevalence of all analgesic types except NSAIDs differed by age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, and region. Annual prevalence of non-NSAID analgesic prescriptions increased with age and deprivation, were higher in females than males, and higher in Northern than Southern England. The opposite pattern was seen with age for oral NSAIDs. NSAIDs were more commonly prescribed in males than females. Very little difference was seen in NSAID prescribing by deprivation, ethnicity, and region. There was a significant change in the trend of opioid prescription annual prevalence in 2015 (year of Public Health England’s “Opioid Aware” release) when the rate of decline increased, and at 2013 and 2018 for gabapentinoids when the annual prevalence increase slowed then declined (years of NHS England’s release of information on gabapentinoid risks, and their reclassification as controlled substances). Whilst overall national analgesic prescribing in IA has fallen over 17 years - with interventions to deliver safer opioid/gabapentinoid prescribing potentially contributing - it remains common. This is at variance with evidence of analgesic efficacy and risks. The differences in prescribing of some analgesic types by patient sociodemographic factors and regions suggest unwarranted variation. Interventions are needed to improve the delivery of effective, equitable IA pain treatment. Disclosure I.C. Scott: None. R. Whittle: None. J. Bailey: None. H. Twohig: None. S.L. Hider: None. C.D. Mallen: None. S. Muller: None. K.P. Jordan: None.