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. 2023 May 19;30(6):1042-1046.
doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocad053.

The association between prescription drug monitoring programs and controlled substance prescribing: a cross-sectional study using data from 2019 National Electronic Health Records Survey

Shivani Mehta  1 , William Brown  1   2   3   4   5 , Erin Ferguson  1 , James Najera  1 , Matthew S Pantell  6
Affiliations

The association between prescription drug monitoring programs and controlled substance prescribing: a cross-sectional study using data from 2019 National Electronic Health Records Survey

Shivani Mehta et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. .

Abstract

Objective: The use of controlled medications such as opioids, stimulants, anabolic steroids, depressants, and hallucinogens has led to an increase in addiction, overdose, and death. Given the high attributes of abuse and dependency, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) were introduced in the United States as a state-level intervention.

Materials and methods: Using cross-sectional data from the 2019 National Electronic Health Records Survey, we assessed the association between PDMP usage and reduced or eliminated controlled substance prescribing as well as the association between PDMP usage and changing a controlled substance prescription to a nonopioid pharmacologic therapy or nonpharmacologic therapy. We applied survey weights to produce physician-level estimates from the survey sample.

Results: Adjusting for physician age, sex, type of medical degree, specialty, and ease of PDMP, we found that physicians who reported "often" PDMP usage had 2.34 times the odds of reducing or eliminating controlled substance prescriptions compared to physicians who reported never using the PDMP (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12-4.90). Adjusting for physician age, sex, type of doctor, and specialty, we found that physicians who reported "often" use of the PDMP had 3.65 times the odd of changing controlled substance prescriptions to a nonopioid pharmacologic therapy or nonpharmacologic therapy (95% CI: 1.61-8.26).

Discussion: These results support the continued use, investment, and expansion of PDMPs as an effective intervention for reducing controlled substance prescription and changing to nonopioid/pharmacologic therapy.

Conclusion: Overall, frequent usage of PDMPs was significantly associated with reducing, eliminating, or changing controlled substance prescription patterns.

Keywords: National Electronic Health Records Survey; controlled substance prescribing; prescription drug monitoring programs; survey methods.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

References

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