PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF OPIOID AND NON-OPIOID ANALGESICS IN THE OUTPATIENT SETTING AT HOSPITAL UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH

Abstract

Background: Analgesics are commonly prescribed for pain relief and are broadly classified into opioid and non-opioid agents, spanning use across mild to severe pain. Objective: To describe the prescribing patterns of opioid and non-opioid analgesics, and the distribution of prescriptions by age, gender, and medical speciality, among patients attending Pusat Rawatan Warga and Poliklinik UMS (HUMS). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 600 analgesic prescriptions for pain management among adult outpatients (aged ≥18 years), selected by simple random sampling from paper-based prescription records at Pusat Rawatan Warga and Poliklinik UMS, Hospital Universiti Malaysia Sabah, from November 2025 to March 2026. Data on analgesic type, diagnosis, prescribing speciality, age and gender were extracted using a structured data collection form and analysed descriptively (frequencies and percentages) using Microsoft Excel and GraphPad Prism v10.5. Results: Among 600 prescriptions, 51 (8.50%) contained an opioid, while 549 (91.50%) contained only non opioid analgesics. All opioid prescriptions were for oral tramadol 50 mg. The proportion of prescriptions containing an opioid was higher in the 31–60 years age group (9.79%) than in the 18–30 years group (6.84%), and higher among males (14.55%) than females (5.17%). By speciality, the proportion was highest in orthopaedics (14.38%), followed by dentistry (6.02%) and general medicine (1.78%). Orthopaedics and dentistry together accounted for 92.16% of all opioid prescriptions. Conclusion: Non-opioid analgesics accounted for most outpatient analgesic prescriptions, while opioid prescribing, limited to tramadol, was relatively low. Opioid prescriptions were proportionally more frequent among male patients and were concentrated in orthopaedics and dentistry. Because pain severity and clinical outcomes were not assessed, these findings describe prescription distribution rather than prescribing appropriateness. They provide baseline data on outpatient analgesic prescribing at Hospital Universiti Malaysia Sabah to inform future studies of prescribing practice, safety and patient outcomes.