Research Article
Open Access
Prescription-Seeking Patterns among Users of Codeine– Acetaminophen and Tramadol-Acetaminophen
Benedictis Lippi*, Zrinski Topic, Lenicek Krleza, Mannisto T Anetor, Yenice Pillay
Indiana University School of Medicine, Evansville Center for Medical Education, USA
Lippi B, et al.Prescription-Seeking Patterns among Users of Codeine– Acetaminophen and Tramadol-Acetaminophen . Asian Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 13(2), 2025, 1-4.
Abstract
This exploratory pilot study examined the occurrence of medication-seeking behaviour among primary care patients presenting with pain-related complaints. A total of 56 individuals were reviewed, consisting of those prescribed either codeine–acetaminophen (C–A) (n = 39) or tramadol–acetaminophen (T–A) (n = 17). The audit aimed to generate preliminary hypotheses regarding how often drug-seeking patterns appeared following these prescriptions. Overall, such behaviours were observed significantly more frequently in patients who received C–A compared with those prescribed T–A (p = 0.01). No statistically meaningful differences were identified between the two prescription groups with respect to demographic or clinical features—including age, sex, previous exposure to codeine-based products, primary reason for the visit, employment or disability status, motor-vehicle or workplace injury, chronic pain diagnoses, attendance with specialist providers, or co-existing psychiatric conditions (all p > 0.05). Within the C–A group, younger adults appeared somewhat more likely to display drug-seeking tendencies, although this trend did not reach significance (p = 0.19), and stratified age analysis did not show a clear association. These preliminary findings suggest that drug-seeking behaviour may be more strongly associated with C–A than with T–A prescriptions. Larger, controlled studies with multivariate models are needed to validate these early observations.
Keywords
Codeine-combination therapy; Tramadol-combination therapy; Prescription misuse; Analgesic management; Medication-seeking behaviour.