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Assessment of Prescriber and Pharmacy Shopping Among the Family Members of Patients Prescribed Opioids

  • In 2016, 8485 (0.6%) of the 1.5 million opioid prescriptions filled by US adults and children with family insurance plans occurred when at least 1 family member met criteria for prescriber and pharmacy shopping. *
  • Among the 8485 index fills, 68.1% of prescribing clinicians were physicians, 7.9% were physician assistants, 7.2% were nurse practitioners, and 43% were dentists.
  • The most common physician specialties among the 8485 index fills were family medicine (17.1%), pain medicine (16.4%), internal medicine (9.6%), and orthopedic surgery (6.5%).

*prescriber and pharmacy shopping is when an individual obtains opioids from high numbers of prescribers and pharmacies

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Chua KP, Brummett CM, Conti RM, Haffajee RL, Prosser LA, Bohnert ASB. Assessment of Prescriber and Pharmacy Shopping Among the Family Members of Patients Prescribed Opioids. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 May 3;2(5):e193673. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.3673. PMID: 31074819; PMCID: PMC6512276.