Mandates designed to decrease opioid prescriptions in the U.S. have worked, but they also have had an unintended and undesirable public health outcome, according to a recent study from a researcher at The University of Texas at Dallas.
The study, published online July 2 in Production and Operations Management, focused on mandated use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). Many states have implemented policies that require prescribers to check a patient’s prescription history prior to initiating or refilling prescriptions for controlled substances.
Dr. Tongil “TI” Kim, assistant professor of marketing in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, and the study’s co-authors found that in states that mandated PDMP use, opioid prescriptions decreased as intended. The mandates, however, had the unintended effect of driving existing opioid users toward more lethal illicit substitutes, such as heroin.
“There are currently more than 2 million individuals with opioid-use disorder, characterized by chronic abuse of prescription opiates,” Kim said. “With more than 130 people dying from opioid overdose every day, this has become a serious social issue in America.”
Addressing the Epidemic
The overprescribing of opioids by physicians is considered a primary driver of the nationwide epidemic, Kim said. Many patients who are introduced to prescription opioids, usually for pain management, go on to display a pattern of increasing usage or they begin using more dangerous drugs instead.
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