Usefulness of prescription monitoring programs for surveillance—analysis of Schedule II opioid prescription data in Massachusetts, 1996–2006

Katz, Nathaniel; Panas, Lee; Kim, Meelee; Audet, Adele D.; Bilansky, Arnold; Eadie, John L.; Kreiner, Peter; Paillard, Florence; Thomas, Cindy Parks; Carrow, Grant M.

doi:10.1002/pds.1878

Cited by 126 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…There are no universally accepted definitions of prescription drug misuse [22,23] making quantification challenging. Due to the limited clinical information held in routine data collections, prescription drug misuse is not directly measured at the population level [23] but is commonly inferred based on patterns of drug access and by investigating patient interactions with prescribers and pharmacies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonizing Post-Market Surveillance of Prescription Drug Misuse: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies Using Routinely Collected Data (2000–2013)

et al. 2015

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Background Prescription drug misuse is a growing public health concern globally. Routinely collected data provides a valuable tool for quantifying prescription drug misuse.Objective To synthesize the global literature investigating prescription drug misuse utilizing routinely collected, person-level prescription/dispensing data to examine reported measures, documented extent of misuse and associated factors.Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, MEDLINE In Process, Scopus citations and Google Scholar for relevant articles published between January 1 2000-July 31 2013. We screened 10,803 abstracts and retrieved 281 full-text manuscripts. Fifty-two peer-reviewed, English-language manuscripts met our inclusion criteria: an aim/method investigating prescription drug misuse and a measure of misuse derived exclusively from prescription/dispensing data.Results Four proxies of prescription drug misuse were used commonly across studies: number of prescribers, dispensing pharmacies, early refills and volume of drugs dispensed. We identified 89 unique measures of misuse across the 52 studies, reflecting the heterogeneity in how measures are constructed; single or composite; different thresholds, cohort definitions and time period of assessment. Consequently, it was not possible to make definitive comparisons about the extent (range reported: 0.01-93.5%), variations and factors associated with prescription drug misuse.Conclusion Routine data collections are relatively consistent across jurisdictions. Despite the heterogeneity of the current literature, our review identifies the capacity to develop universally accepted metrics of misuse applied to a core set of variables in prescription/dispensing claims. Our timely recommendations have the potential to unify the global research field and increase the capacity for routine surveillance of prescription drug misuse. 3 Key points Prescription drug misuse is increasing globally. This can be monitored readily using routinely collected data; quantifying drug access patterns at the population-level. Our review identified only four common proxies for prescription drug misuse (number of prescribers; number of dispensing pharmacies; volume of drug(s) dispensed; and/or overlapping prescriptions/early refills) yet they were used to derive 89 unique definitions of misuse due to variations in thresholds, or use alone or in combination. We recommend the development of consistent and replicable metrics to facilitate monitoring and comparisons of the extent of prescription drug misuse across health care settings and over time.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonizing Post-Market Surveillance of Prescription Drug Misuse: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies Using Routinely Collected Data (2000–2013)

et al. 2015

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“…This definition has been used in previous studies [6]. Chronic use was described as 3 or more consecutive months of a prescription medication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is prescribing controlled medications to patients who die of prescription drug abuse?

Lev

Lee

Petro

et al. 2016

The American Journal of Emergency Medicine

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Background: Prescription drug-related fatalities remain a significant issue in the United States, yet there is a relative lack of knowledge on the specialty-specific prescription patterns for drug-related deaths. Methods: We designed a study that investigated medical examiner reports of prescription drug-related deaths that occurred in San Diego County during 2013. A Prescription Drug Monitoring Program search was performed on each of these cases to ascertain which physician specialties had prescribed controlled substances to these patients. The data were analyzed for each specialty, including pills per prescription, type of prescription, doctor shoppers (4 physicians + 4 pharmacies over 1 year), and chronic users (≥3 consecutive months of medications). Main findings: In 2013, 4.5% of all providers in San Diego County wrote a prescription for a patient who died a prescription-related death. There were a total of 713 providers who prescribed 4366 medications totaling 328928 pills. Overall, emergency physicians gave the lowest number of prescriptions per provider (1.6), whereas pain management provided the highest amount per provider (12.9). Most prescriptions went to doctor shoppers (N50%) and chronic users (95.8%). Hydrocodone was the most frequently prescribed medication to those patients whose deaths were related to prescription drugs. Conclusions: Emergency physicians appear to provide fewer prescriptions to those patients who die due to prescription drugs. Emergency physicians do, however, account for a significant proportion of total providers in this study. These results highlight the need to use Prescription Drug Monitoring Program data to closely monitor prescription patterns and to intervene when necessary.

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“…The strength and validity of GP prescription data have been proven by several studies for different diseases using diverse study designs (Hansell et al, 1999;Katz et al, 2010;Jick et al, 2003), for example evaluating the risk of cardiovascular diseases (Osborn et al, 2007;Clayton et al, 2008), monitoring the use of antibiotics for respiratory diseases (Howie et al, 1971;Petersen et al, 2007) and identifying asthmatic children through GP prescription database (Moth et al, 2007). A few studies have used salbutamol prescribing data in respiratory diseases surveillance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-stage Bayesian model to evaluate the effect of air pollution on chronic respiratory diseases using drug prescriptions

Blangiardo

Finazzi

Cameletti

2016

Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology

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Exposure to high levels of air pollutant concentration is known to be associated with respiratory problems which can translate into higher morbidity and mortality rates. The link between air pollution and population health has mainly been assessed considering air quality and hospitalization or mortality data. However this approach limits the analysis to individuals characterized by severe conditions. In this paper we evaluate the link between air pollution and respiratory diseases using general practice drug prescriptions for chronic respiratory diseases, which allow to draw conclusions based on the general population.We propose a two-stage statistical approach: in the first stage we specify a space-time model to estimate the monthly NO 2 concentration integrating several data sources characterized by different spatio-temporal resolution; in the second stage we link the concentration to the β 2 -agonists prescribed monthly by general practices in England and we model the prescription rates through a small area approach.

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Usefulness of prescription monitoring programs for surveillance—analysis of Schedule II opioid prescription data in Massachusetts, 1996–2006

Abstract: PMPs can become a useful public health surveillance tool to monitor the medical and non-medical use of prescription opioids and to inform public health and safety policy.

Cited by 126 publications

References 21 publications

Harmonizing Post-Market Surveillance of Prescription Drug Misuse: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies Using Routinely Collected Data (2000–2013)

Harmonizing Post-Market Surveillance of Prescription Drug Misuse: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies Using Routinely Collected Data (2000–2013)

Who is prescribing controlled medications to patients who die of prescription drug abuse?

Two-stage Bayesian model to evaluate the effect of air pollution on chronic respiratory diseases using drug prescriptions

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