Study shows women are more likely to be prescribed with opioid analgesics

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Jun 30 2020

Women are significantly more likely to receive prescriptions of opioid analgesics. Read the study, which was performed in a nationally representative sample of adults in the U.S., in Journal of Women's Health.

Researchers from University of California Davis School of Medicine identified three main factors driving this discrepancy.

These included lower, more adverse socio-economic status among women and more adverse health status-related factors. Another factor was higher rates of overall healthcare utilization.

Our analysis found no evidence that the treatment of pain was driving women's higher rates of prescription opioids."

Alicia Agnoli, MD., Department of Family and Community Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine

"Future research and prevention efforts should target these factors to help combat the growing opioid epidemic," says Journal of Women's Health Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA.