The stigma of low opioid prescription in the hospitalized multimorbid elderly in Italy.

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of opioid prescriptions in hospitalized geriatric patients. Other aims were to evaluate factors associated with opioid prescription, and whether or not there was consistency between the presence of pain and prescription. Opioid prescriptions were gathered from the REgistro POliterapie Societa` Italiana di Medicina Interna (REPOSI) data for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012. 1,380 in-patients, 65+ years old, were enrolled in the first registry run, 1,332 in the second and 1,340 in the third. The prevalence of opioid prescription was calculated at hospital admission and discharge. In the third run of the registry, the degree of pain was…