Medication sharing, storage, and disposal practices for opioid medications among US adults.
The prescription opioid epidemic is one of the most pressing current patient safety issues, resulting in thousands of deaths yearly. This survey of patients who used prescription opioids in the past year found that more than 20% had shared their medications with someone else, and nearly half had never received information on safe storage or disposal of these medications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published guidelines on safe opioid prescribing.