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Intended and unintended consequences: changes in opioid prescribing practices for postsurgical, acute, and chronic pain indications following two policies in North Carolina, 2012-2018 - controlled and single-series interrupted time series analyses.
Maierhofer CN, Ranapurwala SI, DiPrete BL, et al. Intended and unintended consequences: changes in opioid prescribing practices for postsurgical, acute, and chronic pain indications following two policies in North Carolina, 2012-2018--controlled and single-series interrupted time series analyses. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2023;242:109727. doi 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109727
A national focus on reducing opioid misuse and abuse has resulted in changes to opioid prescribing policies and practice. This retrospective longitudinal study explored changes in prescribing rates, supply and dose of opioid prescriptions after changes in opioid prescribing policies in North Carolina. Researchers found that that prescribing patterns for acute and postsurgical pain patients (but not chronic pain patients) decreased after a state medical board initiative to reduce high-dose and high-volume. Further, new legislation to limit initial opioid prescriptions for acute and postsurgical pain led to a decrease in prescribing for cancer patients with chronic pain, but did not lead to reductions among patients with acute, postsurgical, or non-cancer chronic pain.
