Boosting support for prescription drug monitoring programs, and establishing a consistent funding source, is strongly related to a reduction in opioid-related overdose deaths, says a new study from Health Affairs.
Additional funding could increase the number of drug schedules monitored by the programs, and increase the frequency of data updating, the authors found. Those features, combined with programs that are specifically tailored for easy use by physicians, are linked with a reduction in overdoses.
The programs collect data from pharmacies on the prescribing of controlled substances, review and analyze the data, and report to prescribers. The goal is to identify high-risk behaviors on the part of both patients and providers: Patients, for example, may obtain a prescription from multiple providers, while providers may prescribe inappropriately high doses of the drugs, authors explained.
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In looking at data from 34 states from 1999 to 2013, authors found that states implementing such programs had a lower opioid-related death rate: 6.19 per 100,000 people versus 6.5 per 100,000. Those findings held true regardless of a state's education or employment statistics.
When examining a state before and after its creation of a prescription drug monitoring program, authors found the programs resulted in an average decrease of 1.12 opioid-related overdose deaths per 100,000 population annually.
The most effective programs were the ones that monitored four or more drug schedules and updated their data at least weekly, the study found. A program with both of those features was predicted to have 1.55 fewer opioid-related overdose deaths per 100,000 population annually than programs without such characteristics.
[Also: American Medical Association adopts policies aimed at reversing opioid epidemic]
The study suggests that policymakers, if they've not already done so, should craft robust programs that update data weekly and monitor four or more drug schedules. If states did this, and if Missouri implemented an effective program of its own, researchers estimate that about 600 opioid-related deaths could be avoided annually.
In 2015, 33 states monitored at least four drug schedules, and 48 states updated program data at least weekly.
Of the states examined, West Virginia was an extreme outlier, having twice the number of opioid overdose deaths than the national average before implementation of its drug monitoring program, and with the death rate from opioids climbing slightly after an initial drop. Missouri remains the only state without a program altogether, and its overdose deaths grew faster than the national average over the study period.
[Also: Georgia caps the number of opioid treatment clinics]
Most states -- all, in fact, except Missouri -- have implemented prescription drug monitoring programs in response to the high number of deaths associated with opioid abuse. In 2014, 47,055 people in the United States died from drug overdoses; 61 percent of those deaths were related to opioids.
Twitter: @JELagasse