High-risk opioid prescribing trends in the outpatient setting prior to issuance of federal guidance

Co-prescription of opioid and benzodiazepine products increases the risk of overdose-related mortality four-fold due to respiratory depression. Accordingly, prevention of high-risk opioid prescribing (HROP) has become a focus over the past two decades and was the subject of a black-box warning (BBW) issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 31, 2016. Because older patients are at increased risk for these outcomes, we compared rates of HROP for older (aged ≥65 years) and younger (aged 18–64 years) adults using a repeated cross-sectional cohort design. Data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey of U.S. office-based physician visits were accessed for 2006–2016 August. From 2006 to 2016, the opioid-prescribing rate increased by 40% among those aged 18–64 years and by 54% among those aged ≥65 years. From 2012–2013 to 2014–2016, the HROP rate, expressed as a proportion of all opioid-prescribing visits, increased to 26.6% among those aged 18–64 years but declined to 21.0% among those aged ≥65 years, primarily because of changes for patients aged ≥75 years. Prior to the FDA-issued BBW, the HROP prescribing rate trended upward for all adults, except in 2014–2016 when it began to decline among older adults.