A lthough guidelines suggest physicians should not treat themselves, the self-prescription of medications is common. Self-prescription among physicians in training is of particular concern, given their limited clinical experience and high levels of work stress. In the only large multicenter study conducted to date, to our knowledge,Christie et al found that self-prescribing iswidespread, with 5...

Previous reviews have shown that changes in prescription drug insurance benefits can affect medication use and adherence. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify studies addressing the association between prescription drug coverage and health outcomes. Studies were included if they collected empirical data on expansions or restrictions of prescription drug coverage and if...

Policymakers have devoted much attention recently to expanding outpatient prescription drug coverage for elderly persons. New findings from the 2000-01 Community Tracking Study household survey show that many nonelderly adults also have problems affording prescription drugs. The problem is particularly serious among persons who are uninsured or enrolled in Medicaid, of whom about one out of fou...

CONTEXT The dramatic rise in the use of prescription opioids to treat non-cancer pain has been paralleled by increasing prescription opioid abuse. However, detailed analyses of these trends and programs to address them are lacking. OBJECTIVE To study the association between state shipments of prescription opioids for medical use and prescription opioid abuse admissions and to assess the effec...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the strategies Medicare beneficiaries adopt to manage their out-of-pocket prescription costs in a prescription drug plan with maximum (.capped.) benefits and to evaluate differences in the likelihood of participating in any one strategy before and after exhaustion of capped prescription benefits. METHODS Self-administered surveys were mailed to 786 Medicare+Choice member...