Replication Data for: Substitution of Nonpharmacologic Therapy With Opioid Prescribing for Pain During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Was nonpharmacologic therapy (ie, physical therapy and complementary medicine)—a low-risk alternative treatment for acute and chronic pain—replaced by prescription opioid analgesics during the COVID-19 pandemic? This cross-sectional study of weekly claims data from 24 million commercially insured patients in the US found evidence of substitution of nonpharmacologic therapy with increased opioid prescribing, accompanied by more potent and longer prescriptions, at the population and individual levels during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings suggest that progress toward reversing the opioid epidemic may have been stalled by the pandemic as practitioners resorted to higher levels of opioid prescribing to control pain in the absence of less risky alternatives.