Opioid Risk Tool

DOCUMENT THE RISK OF OPIOIDS
The Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) is a five-question, self-administered assessment that can be completed within 5 minutes and should be utilized on a patient’s initial visit. It assesses the subject for personal and family history of substance abuse, age, history of preadolescent sexual abuse, and for the presence of depression, attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. In a pilot study of patients with chronic pain, the ORT accurately predicted which patients were at the highest and lowest risks of exhibiting aberrant, drug-related behaviors associated with abuse or addiction. Examples of these behaviors include using more opioids than prescribed, selling prescriptions, losing prescriptions or reporting them stolen, canceling clinic visits, and forging prescriptions.

Webster LR, Webster R. Predicting aberrant behaviors in Opioid-treated patients: preliminary validation of the Opioid risk tool. Pain Med. 2005;6(6):432