Fig. 2

Computation of one-year long-term opioid use in 6 hypothetical patients. Patient A have no dispensings in consecutive 90-day-periods and is not a long-term user. Patients B–F have dispensings in two consecutive 90-day-periods, and ≥900 MMEs in the first 90 days, and are thus long-term users. The long-term episodes stops when the gap to the next dispensing is >180 days, and the duration of the last dispensing within that episode is added. Patients D and E have a second long-term treatment episode starting when the criteria are once again met. Patient G only fulfills the criteria from the second dispensing and onwards. Patient E and F are one-year long-term (1yrLT) opioid users, since day 90, 180, and 365 are all covered by long-term treatment episodes