Desai R, et al. - The patterns of pharmacological treatment in the population with chronic back pain (CBP) were determined. Further, researchers assessed the impact of treatment on quality of life, health care utilization and associated costs in the USA. Analyzing retrospective, cross-sectional data, obtained from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), from 2011 to 2015, they identified a total of 5,203 individuals with CBP. Of these, 2,568 (49.4%) reported utilizing opioids only, 1,448 (27.8%) reported utilizing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) only and 1,187 (22.8%) reported utilizing both pain medications. The opioid-only group had lower health-related quality-of-life scores on both the Short Form Health Survey-12 version 2 (SF-12v2) components compared to the NSAID-only group. In addition, greater utilization of inpatient services, office-based services, outpatient services and emergency room visits along with higher related health care costs were noted among individuals utilizing opioids only.