Prescribing Associated with High-Risk Opioid Exposures Among Non-cancer Chronic Users of Opioid Analgesics: a Social Network Analysis.
J Gen Intern Med
; 34(11): 2443-2450, 2019 11.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31420823
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The continued rise in fatalities from opioid analgesics despite a steady decline in the number of individual prescriptions directing ≥ 90 morphine milligram equivalents (MME)/day may be explained by patient exposures to redundant prescriptions from multiple prescribers.OBJECTIVES:
We evaluated prescribers' specialty and social network characteristics associated with high-risk opioid exposures resulting from single-prescriber high-daily dose prescriptions or multi-prescriber discoordination.DESIGN:
Retrospective cohort study.PARTICIPANTS:
A cohort of prescribers with opioid analgesic prescription claims for non-cancer chronic opioid users in an Illinois Medicaid managed care program in 2015-2016. MAINMEASURES:
Per prescriber rates of single-prescriber high-daily-dose prescriptions or multi-prescriber discoordination. KEYRESULTS:
For 2280 beneficiaries, 36,798 opioid prescription claims were submitted by 3532 prescribers. Compared to 3% of prescriptions (involving 6% of prescribers and 7% of beneficiaries) that directed ≥ 90 MME/day, discoordination accounted for a greater share of high-risk exposures-13% of prescriptions (involving 23% of prescribers and 24% of beneficiaries). The following specialties were at highest risk of discoordinated prescribing compared to internal medicine dental (incident rate ratio (95% confidence interval) 5.9 (4.6, 7.5)), emergency medicine (4.7 (3.8, 5.8)), and surgical subspecialties (4.2 (3.0, 5.8)). Social network analysis identified 2 small interconnected prescriber communities of high-volume pain management specialists, and 3 sparsely connected groups of predominantly low-volume primary care or emergency medicine clinicians. Using multivariate models, we found that the sparsely connected sociometric positions were a risk factor for high-risk exposures.CONCLUSION:
Low-volume prescribers in the social network's periphery were at greater risk of intended or discoordinated prescribing than interconnected high-volume prescribers. Interventions addressing discoordination among low-volume opioid prescribers in non-integrated practices should be a priority. Demands for enhanced functionality and integration of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs or referrals to specialized multidisciplinary pain management centers are potential policy implications.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Contexto em Saúde:
2_ODS3
/
8_ODS3_consumo_sustancias_psicoactivas
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Padrões de Prática Médica
/
Analgésicos Opioides
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspecto:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Gen Intern Med
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article