There has been a 25 percent decline in deaths from oxycodone overdoses since a drug monitoring program was implemented in Florida.
The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program keeps tabs on highly abused, controlled-substance prescriptions, such as pain relievers, anti-anxiety medications and stimulant medications. Chris Delcher, assistant professor in the UF Department of Health Outcomes and Policy and the lead author of a study tracking the progress of the program since it began in 2011, said the Florida Department of Health gathered this information from pharmacies to monitor prescription trends.
“Florida has done a remarkable job of clamping down on the availability of prescription pain relievers,” Delcher said, “but when you do that, you can also expect that the demand is still there. So, you start to see a shift of some people into heroin and other kinds of illicit drugs.”
Delcher said UF researchers found there was a decrease by looking at the monthly number of deaths from oxycodone over about 10 years.
Delcher said the program has given prescribers more information about their patients’ medical history so they can make more informed dosage decisions. It can also expose whether patients are receiving prescriptions from multiple prescribers.
“In one way, shape or form, the PMPs are limiting the availability of those forms of highly abused pain medications, and then that is translating to reducing the number of deaths from those medications,” Delcher said.
Almost every pharmacy in Gainesville uses the program, said Reggie Howard, lead technician at CVS Pharmacy on Archer Road. It gives pharmacists a thorough look at the patient, which allows them to determine if the patient needs the medication or if they are trying to abuse it.
“We will call (the prescriber) and ask them what is going on with the prescription,” Howard said, “and what they are prescribing it for in order to get more information to make sure they are prescribing the medication for a legitimate purpose.”
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 4/21/2015]
