CONTEXT Use and abuse of prescription narcotic analgesics have increased dramatically in the United States since 1990. The effect of this pharmacoepidemic has been most pronounced in rural states, including West Virginia, which experienced the nation's largest increase in drug overdose mortality rates during 1999-2004. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the risk characteristics of persons dying of uninten...

BACKGROUND Therapeutic use and abuse of prescription opioids in the United States increased substantially between 1990 and 2010. The Centers for Disease Control estimated deaths related to pharmaceutical opioids reached nearly 19,000 in 2014. Of prescription opioids sold, 10% are extended release (ER) and 90% immediate release (IR). However, most regulations and interventions have focused on de...

ecent years have seen increases in prescription of Rpharmaceutical opioids and benzodiazepines, and in the associated harms. This presents challenges for clinicians and governments regarding appropriate monitoring and responses. Real-time prescription drug monitoring programs (RT-PDMPs) are being considered in Australia to enable detection of drug diversion (when drugs are transferred from a li...

UNLABELLED Prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) are designed to reduce medication diversion by identifying individuals obtaining the same medication from multiple providers (termed multiple provider episodes [MPEs]). This study determined whether recent changes to California's PMP influenced: 1) the extent that practitioners issue prescriptions for a variety of Schedule II opioids; and 2) th...

background: as a major responsibility, health authorities must control rational prescription of drugs (rud). a way to analyze the regional status of drug prescription is the who’s recommended indices. the purpose of the study was to determine the status of drug prescriptions in pharmacies of healthcare centers under the authority of tehran university of medical sciences based on the who indices...

BACKGROUND Prescription drug monitoring programs issue reports about a patient's controlled substance prescription history upon request to physicians, law enforcement officials, and pharmacists. The dual purposes of these programs are to reduce the abuse and diversion of controlled substances while not preventing access to these medications for legitimate medical need. OBJECTIVE The purpose o...

BACKGROUND The development of abuse deterrent formulations is one strategy for reducing prescription opioid misuse and abuse. A putative abuse deterrent formulation of oxycodone extended release (OxyContin®) was introduced in 2010. Early reports demonstrated reduced abuse and diversion, however, an analysis of social media found 32 feasible methods to circumvent the abuse deterrent mechanism. W...

This report describes Diversion Alert, a unique online tool aimed at reducing misuse and diversion of prescription drugs, and reports the results of a 1-year evaluation of Diversion Alert's impact in Maine. We used a quasi-experimental research design to compare survey data in Maine with those of neighboring states (New Hampshire and Vermont, 2013 and 2014). Compared with their counterparts in ...

drug therapy is a complex and important process and because of the importance of drug interactions, especially in in-patients, accompanying problems and obstacles would exist as a result of concomitant use of drugs in these patients. for this purpose 3130 prescription order forms from bou-ali hospital were collected and all potential drug interactions presentwere extracted and evaluated in term...

OBJECTIVES To examine trends in the lifetime and past-year prevalence of medical use, diversion, and nonmedical use of four prescription medication classes (i.e., sedative/anxiety, opioid, sleeping, and stimulant) among college students between 2003 and 2013; and to identify demographic and background characteristics associated with trends in past-year nonmedical use of prescription medications...