In a number of US states, drug monitoring programs are now widely used, but there is no evidence of their effectiveness in combating opioid overdose, as shown by a recent study. Ratione behind the use of these programs is to prevent the replication or overlapping of prescriptions for opioids - a practice commonly known as the medical trade.
Chris Delcher, from the findings of the Department of Health at the University of Florida Medical College, said that it is important to understand whether these programs help in any way by containing fatal and non-fatal overdose. According to him, in an era when changes occur and are implemented at the federal level to combat the opioid epidemic, it is natural to assess the usefulness of such programs.
Delcher and his team published their results in the magazine Annals of Internal Medicine in May 2018. The study was sponsored jointly by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Institute on Drug Abuse Control (NIDA), and was led by scientists from the University of California, Davis and Columbia University.
A group of researchers investigated as many as 2,600 scientific publications and found that only 10 interrelated drug monitoring programs for overdose prescriptions. Even in these 10 studies, the team found extremely low evidence of the effectiveness of programs to reduce fatal overdoses, which led to inconclusive results.
Unintentional exits
The authors of the study came across some surprising conclusions. Three studies showed that after implementing prescription drug control programs, there was an increase in overdose mortality due to heroin. A 2013 study found that in Philadelphia and San Francisco there was a transition from prescription drugs to heroin because of its easy availability and cheap cost.
Moreover, in 2011 in Florida after the implementation of the program, the number of overdoses decreased due to oxycodone, but there was a concomitant increase in overdoses associated with fentanyl, heroin and morphine. Delcher explained this by stating that prescription opioid suppression makes it easier to switch to other drugs.
Researchers discovered three parameters from prescription drug monitoring programs that affected the number of fatal overdoses. These were:
- Review the patient's medical history before writing a prescription.
- Increased frequent update of patient data.
- Increased availability of patient data to providers.
Opioid overdose deaths are rising
Nearly 350,000 people succumbed to an overdose of opioids - both prescriptive and illegal - from 1999 to 2016. Overdose mortality was diagnosed in three stages:
- The first stage began in 1999, when the prescriptions for opioids increased (methadone, natural and semi-synthetic opioids).
- The second stage began in 2010, when overdose mortality increased due to heroin.
- The third stage began in 2013, when deaths related to overdose increased due to fentanyl. Many times, fentanyl is laced with heroin and cocaine and sold in fake pills.
Drug addiction usually begins with a prescription, and when the prescription dries out, people fuel their dependence on illicit drugs. These drugs can have a catastrophic effect on every area of life. Thus, one should seek help from drug abuse from a good drug abuse clinic before it is too late.
