Table 2 Summary of opioid prescribing in PA between 2016 and 2020 as per the PDMP and associated data
Summary of Findings | |||
The PA PDMP has highlighted that across nearly every measure, prescriptions of oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine have declined between 2016 and 2020 in PA. | |||
High prescription quantities (90+ pills) and long length of prescriptions (31+ days) had the largest decline over this period, with a 45.41% decrease and 56.94% decrease respectively. | |||
These findings highlight that legislative measures, alongside multimodal pain treatments and preventive interventions, have been effective at lowering rates of opioid prescribing with monitoring of prescriptions by the PDMP integral in the tracking progress. | |||
Death attributed to opioid overdose has similarly shown a decrease over this period, but further investigation is required to understand what measures have effectively resulted in this change. | |||
PDMP program utility is evident for tracking prescriptions, but further research is needed to delineate its overall effectiveness in helping to lower total opioid-related deaths and crimes. | |||
Prescription metric | Starting total (at Q3: 2016) | Final total (at Q1: 2020) | % Net change from 2016 to 2020 |
Total number of prescriptions | |||
Oxycodone | 961,172 | 630,888 | −34.36 |
Hydrocodone | 662,695 | 366,966 | −44.63 |
Morphine | 135,983 | 105,668 | −22.29 |
Number of refills | |||
Oxycodone | 262 | 685 | + 161.45 |
Hydrocodone | 161 | 306 | + 90.06 |
Morphine | 557 | 481 | −13.65 |
Length of prescriptions | |||
≤3 days | 319,335 | 211,834 | −33.66 |
4–7 days | 320,389 | 210,358 | −34.34 |
8–21 days | 386,075 | 193,295 | −49.33 |
22–30 days | 898,432 | 575,078 | −35.99 |
31+ days | 17,173 | 7394 | −56.94 |
Prescription quantities | |||
< 21 pills | 483,247 | 338,537 | −29.95 |
22–60 pills | 717,408 | 428,840 | −40.22 |
60–90 pills | 267,419 | 172,176 | −35.62 |
90+ pills | 473,329 | 258,405 | −45.41 |
Average morphine milliequivalents | 68.06 | 55.23 | −18.51 |