Young JC, et al. - Researchers investigated the proportion of patients initiating extended-release (ER) opioids who become long-term users. Further, they sought to inscribe how pain-related diagnoses before initiation of opioid therapy vary between drugs and over time. Pain-related diagnoses were examined in the 182-day baseline period before initiation of ER opioid therapy using MarketScan (2006–2015), a US national commercial insurance database. They identified 1,077,566 adults initiating ER opioids. Of these, 31% became long-term users, with a median length of use of 209 days. In this national sample of adults with private insurance, oxycodone (26%) and fentanyl (23%) were the most common ER opioids prescribed, and back pain (65%) and arthritis (48%) were the most common noncancer pain diagnoses. Opioids that have been approved within the last 10 years were noted to have more frequent association with musculoskeletal pains and less frequent association with cancer. The findings present context concerning the conditions for which long-term opioid therapy is prescribed, amid increasing concerns regarding long-term opioid therapy.