THE EFFECT OF ETHNICITY ON PRESCRIPTIONS FOR PATIENT-CONTROLLED ANALGESIA FOR POSTOPERATIVE PAIN

We studied if ethnicity influences patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) for the treatment of post-operative pain. Using a retrospective record review, we examined data from all patients treated with PCA for post- operative pain from January to June 1993. We excluded patients who did not have surgery prior to the prescription of PCA or were not prescri bed PCA in the immediate post-operative period. The sample consisted o f 454 subjects. While there were no differences in the amount of narco tic self-administered, there were significant differences in the amoun t of narcotic prescribed among Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites ( F = 7.352, P < 0.01). The ethnic differences in prescribed analgesic p ersisted after controlling for age, gender, pre-operative use of narco tics, pain site, and insurance status. Patient's ethnicity has a great er impact on the amount of narcotic prescribed by the physician than o n the amount of narcotic self-administered by the patient.