Because of the multitude of financial, health, and social problems associated with prescription opioid misuse, effective methods of identifying older adults who are misusing these medications are needed. We conducted a pilot investigation to determine the prevalence of previous and current prescription opioid use among older adults visiting the Rhode Island Hospital Emergency Department and the...

OBJECTIVE To examine the population-wide overdose risk emerging from the prescription of methadone and buprenorphine for opioid substitution treatment in England and Wales. DESIGN Retrospective administrative data study. SETTING National databases for England and Wales. PARTICIPANTS/CASES Drug-related mortality data were drawn from the Office for National Statistics, and prescription data...

improper drug prescription by physicians due to wrong diagnosis, wrong drug choise or other causes will waste national funds. the annual drug costs in iran is 900 billions rials. with approvement of prescription, it can be reduced to 500 billions rials. effective factors in costs reduction are: 1) increasing medical knowledge and persistent education of physicians. 2) spending more time for eac...

BACKGROUND Diversion--patients who sell or share their medication--is a hotly debated but relatively unresearched phenomenon. We have investigated the prevalence of self-reported diversion of methadone and buprenorphine at OST programs in Sweden. We have also examined if demographic, treatment, and social factors can be associated with an increased risk of diversion. METHODS Structured interv...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Since its market release, gabapentin has been presumed to have no abuse potential and subsequently has been prescribed widely off-label, despite increasing reports of gabapentin misuse. This review estimates and describes the prevalence and effects of, motivations behind and risk factors for gabapentin misuse, abuse and diversion. METHODS Databases were searched for peer-r...

OBJECTIVE To better understand barriers associated with the adoption and use of electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS), a practice recently established by US Drug Enforcement Administration regulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Prescribers of controlled substances affiliated with a regional health system were surveyed regarding current electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) activi...

BACKGROUND Recent studies report that a significant number of adolescents misuse and divert prescription stimulants. As prescribers of these medications, physicians have a unique opportunity to help prevent the improper use and unlawful distribution of these medications. This study evaluates the extent to which physicians employ prevention practices with their adolescent patients with ADHD and ...

North America is currently facing an opioid epidemic. Opioid overdose deaths have increased 200% since 2000, and in 2014, 28,647 drug-poisoning deaths were attributed to some type of opioid. Multiple sources of opioids contribute to this growing problem and include prescription opioids (including natural and semisynthetic opioids, eg, oxycodone, hydrocodone), methadone, and other synthetic opio...

To the Editor: The International Narcotics Control Board consistently reports that, despite an extremely large number of transactions, little or no narcotic drugs are diverted from licit international trade into illicit channels. Most diversion occurs within countries, where governments attempt to prevent diversion during the manufacture and distribution of controlled substances to the retail l...