Preventing Prescription Drug Diversion.
نویسنده
چکیده
THE FACTS In 2013, more than 43,900 Americans died from drug overdose. Prescription drugs contributed to most of those deaths. Opioid pain relievers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone were involved in more than 16,000 of those deaths (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). Approximately 46 Americans die every day from drug overdoses (Jones, Mack, & Paulozzi, 2013). Opioid overdose is now the second leading cause of unintentional deaths in the United States, second only to motor vehicle collisions. The scope and urgency of this problem has reached such a level that the CDC labeled prescription drug overdose an epidemic (CDC, 2012). Americans are 4.6% of the world population and consume 80% of the global opioid supply, 99% of the hydrocodone supply, and two thirds of the world’s illegal drugs (Lev, 2012). Prescription medications are the second most abused drug after marijuana. Enough prescription painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month (CDC, 2011). Although most of these pills were prescribed for a medical purpose, many ended up in the hands of people who misused or abused them. Nearly 53% of people misusing prescription pain relievers report getting them from a friend or relative the last time they misused these drugs. This is how many new nonmedical users of prescription medications initially obtain these drugs (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014). In 2013, nearly two million Americans aged 12 years or older either abused or was dependent on opioids (CDC, 2011). Twenty-three percent of teens report having abused prescription medications at least once in their lifetime thinking that these medications are safer than illegal drugs because they are obtained by prescription (Partnership for Drug Free Kids and MetLife Foundation, 2014).
منابع مشابه
Pain management and prescription monitoring.
Preventing diversion and abuse of prescription controlled substances while ensuring their availability for legitimate medical use is an important public health goal in the United States. In one approach to preventing and identifying drug diversion, 17 states have implemented prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) to monitor the prescribing of certain controlled substances. While PMPs are not i...
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OBJECTIVE Prescription drug diversion, the transfer of prescription drugs from lawful to unlawful channels for distribution or use, is a problem in the United States. Despite the pervasiveness of diversion, there are gaps in the literature regarding characteristics of individuals who participate in the illicit trade of prescription drugs. This study examines a range of predictors (e.g., demogra...
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General practitioners are key stakeholders in good prescribing practices. More than half of patients have at least one unintended medication discrepancy upon hospital admission, some of which have the potential to cause severe discomfort or clinical deterioration. We report a case of a drug mistakenly administered to a 66-year-old man with cirrhosis and chronic alcoholism. Based on his regular ...
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OBJECTIVE Prescription drug diversion involves the unlawful channeling of regulated pharmaceuticals from legal sources to the illicit marketplace, and can occur along all points in the drug delivery process, from the original manufacturing site to the wholesale distributor, the physician's office, the retail pharmacy, or the patient. However, empirical data on diversion are limited. METHOD In...
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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 ...
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Journal of addictions nursing
دوره 26 3 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2015