State restrictions not associated with reduced opioid misuse among disabled adults
Controlled substance laws are not associated with reductions in hazardous opioid use or overdose among disabled Medicare beneficiaries, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Ellen Meara, PhD, Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Lebanon, New Hampshire, and colleagues, analyzed the associations between prescription-opioid receipt and state-level controlled-substance laws. Data were collected for disabled Medicare beneficiaries between the ages of 21 and 64 who were alive between 2006 and 2012 (8.7 million person-years). The researchers examined the annual prevalence of beneficiaries with 4 or more opioid prescribers, prescriptions yielding a daily morphine-equivalent dose (MED) greater than 120 mg, and treatment for nonfatal prescription opioid overdose, and estimated how opioid outcomes differed based on 8 types of state-level laws.
Between 2006 and 2012, states added 81 controlled substance laws. In 2012, 47% of Medicare beneficiaries filled opioid prescriptions, 8% had 4 or more opioid prescribers, 5% had a daily MED greater than 120 mg, and 0.3% were treated for nonfatal prescription opioid overdose.
“We observed no significant associations between opioid outcomes and specific types of laws or the number of types enacted,” concluded Dr Meara. “For example, the percentage of beneficiaries with a prescription yielding a daily MED of more than 120 mg did not decline after adoption of a prescription drug monitoring program.”
Filed under: General Problems
Gross Gross Gross. Love how they try to spin it & turn it around – “restrictions not associated w/reduced opioid misuse among disabled adults” – if there was only a 0.3% prevalence of non-fatal misuse, then that’s a fairly small group; any change that’s tried to correlate w/that statistic is pretty negligent.
I love how they try to insinuate that things like more than four prescribers is some kind of red flag, without any qualifiers. I’ve been to clinics that had more than four prescribers on staff, & you got your meds rx’d by whoever happened to sign it that day. So, although they were all from the same clinic, I had multiple prescribers.
And I’m really tired of hearing endlessly about MED (morphine equivalent daily) when there’s no mention of all of the variables involved & that there’s no absolute consensus on MED anyway! 120mg+ MED, by itself, is not indicative of absolutely anything other than that’s what the pt takes.
None of the things in this supposed study have anything to do with anything, nor does their conclusion have anything to do with this “study”. They’re trying to say it doesn’t stop misuse, but there really wasn’t much misuse to stop, now, was there. This study makes no sense. Their conclusion makes no sense.
its to contaminate the public,doctors etc,,that their not at fault for this whole mess,,,which they r,,and this ,”mess,” is based on liers telling lies,,,ie,,,article,,,and I agree,,there never was misuse of any significance,,ever,,maryw
See how the deceive the public,,,look at those dates,,2006-2012,,,BEFORE,, the cdc guidelines,,,,,,,maryw
See how deceiving our government is,,or who they pay off,,,,look at the dates the data was taken,,2006-2012,,,BEFORE,,BEFORE,, the cdc death guidelines,,,See this is how they deceive the public,,but it also shows us the lie their trying to cover up,,soo all of us,,DOCTORS INCULDED,, need to expose the lie,,,,that after the cdc guideline were forced down our throats,,,combined w/the dea going after our doctors,,,the combo of both have willfully torture and genocide the medically ill w/painful medical conditions,,,and the reason they do not want our deaths recorded as ,”death due to untreated physical pain,,” and recorded as o.d. and suicides ,,is sooo they can continue their false addiction epidemic,,,mary