title: The effect of ethnicity on prescriptions for patient-controlled analgesia for post-operative pain.
abstract: We studied if ethnicity influences patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) for the treatment of post-operative pain. Using a retrospective record review, we examined data from all patients treated with PCA for post-operative pain from January to June 1993. We excluded patients who did not have surgery prior to the prescription of PCA or were not prescribed PCA in the immediate post-operative period. The sample consisted of 454 subjects. While there were no differences in the amount of narcotic self-administered, there were significant differences in the amount of narcotic prescribed among Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites (F--7,352, P < 0.01). The ethnic differences in prescribed analgesic persisted after controlling for age, gender, pre-operative use of narcotics, pain site, and insurance status. Patient's ethnicity has a greater impact on the amount of narcotic prescribed by the physician than on the amount of narcotic self-administered by the patient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California at San Diego,La Jolla, CA 92093-0804,USA Department of Medical Psychology, Ruhr University of Bochun,Bochum,Germany Department of Anesthesiology, University of California at San Diego,La Jolla, CA 92093-0804,USA.
authors.forename: Bernardo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Joel E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Dimsdale
authors.forename: Jens D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Rollnik
authors.forename: Harvey
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shapiro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D016058:Analgesia, Patient-Controlled; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009294:Narcotics / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D012646:Self Administration; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics