Comparison of chronic analgesic drugs prevalence in Parkinson's disease, other chronic diseases and the general population

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) frequently experienced pain. Nevertheless, there are no epidemiological data about frequency of pain in PD. We compare pain prevalence using analgesic prescription in PD patients, in the general population and in two samples of painful patients: diabetics and osteoarthritis patients in France. Data were obtained from the French System of Health Insurance for the year 2005. Medications (antiparkinsonian, antidiabetics drugs and osteoarthritis drugs) were used for identification of PD, diabetic and osteoarthritis patients. We estimated the prevalence of analgesic drugs prescription (at least one analgesic drug) and the prevalence of chronic analgesic drugs prescription (more than 90 DDD of analgesic drug). The study included 11,466 PD patients. PD patients significantly received more prescription of analgesics than the general population (82% versus 77%,) and fewer than patients with osteoarthritis (82% versus 90%). No significant difference was found between PD and diabetic patients. The chronic prescription of analgesic drugs was more prevalent in PD patients (33%) than in the general population (20%) and in diabetic patients (26%) and similar to that in osteoarthritis patients. PD patients were more exposed than the general population and diabetics to opiates, acetaminophen, and adjuvant analgesics chronic use.