Analgesic Prescribing in Medically Complex Adult Outpatients Aged ≥40 Years: A Hierarchical Analysis of Comorbidity-Associated Patterns

Background/Objectives: Selecting appropriate analgesic therapy in patients with multimorbidity is increasingly challenging because clinicians must balance pain management against comorbidities, polypharmacy, and medication-related risks. However, evidence describing how analgesic prescribing patterns vary across patients with different multimorbidity profiles in routine outpatient practice remains limited. This retrospective cross-sectional study examined associations between multimorbidity and prescribing patterns across paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and opioids, and identified clinical characteristics associated with different hierarchical analgesic exposure groups among adults aged ≥40 years in Saudi Arabia.