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Inappropriate prescribing of opioids for patients undergoing surgery.
- Source :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; 12/6/2022, Vol. 119 Issue 49, p1-4, 10p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- In response to the opioid epidemic in the United States, states have passed policies aimed at regulating how opioids are prescribed by physicians. For such policies to be effective, however, opioids must be prescribed to the patients for whom they are intended. Whether opioid prescriptions are written for those who are not intended to consume them is empirically difficult to show. In a commercially insured population, we examined opioid prescriptions written for and filled by spouses of patients undergoing outpatient surgery on the day of a patient's surgery compared with the surrounding days. Because patients may be unable to fill prescriptions themselves immediately after surgery, surgeons may prescribe opioids to a patient's spouse, which would be clinically inappropriate. Among 450,125 opioid-naïve couples studied, for patients who did not fill perioperative opioid prescriptions themselves, the rate of spousal fills on the day of surgery (DOS) was 2.39 fills per 1,000 surgeries compared with 0.44 fills on all other perioperative days (adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 5.5, 95% CI, 4.6-6.5). Increases in spousal opioid fills were not present for patients that filled opioid prescriptions themselves. These findings suggest intentional, clinically inappropriate prescribing of opioids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00278424
- Volume :
- 119
- Issue :
- 49
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 160672436
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210226119