Opioid Craving in Chronic Pain Management: A Structural Equation Model of Veterans in Pain Rehabilitation

Our results, drawn from one of the few existing datasets examining opioid craving in chronic pain patients without substance use disorder, suggest that the use of prescription opioids for chronic pain management differs from other forms of substance use or misuse in that craving does not appear to predict continued use. Although our study has limitations, including the single-timepoint measurement of craving, the uniqueness of our dataset provides valuable preliminary evidence that challenges assumptions about craving derived from substance use disorder populations. This distinction may reflect fundamental differences between patients using opioids for pain management without substance use disorder vs. those with diagnosed SUD (substance use disorder). Further research with multiple craving assessments is needed, but our findings represent an important step toward understanding the complex relationship between craving and opioid use in this understudied population.