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How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients
Introduction Diversion of unused prescription opioids is a common source of opioid sensitization in the community. Educating patients about safe opioid use has been shown to be effective in decreasing opioid use. However, decreasing diversion will also require educating patients on proper opioid dis...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cureus
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9481200/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36134102 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.28111 |
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author | Talebi, Ramin Miller, Chaim Abboudi, Jack Brahmabhatt, Shyam Emper, William Lonner, Jess Kistler, Justin Mazur, Donald Pedowitz, David Ilyas, Asif M |
author_facet | Talebi, Ramin Miller, Chaim Abboudi, Jack Brahmabhatt, Shyam Emper, William Lonner, Jess Kistler, Justin Mazur, Donald Pedowitz, David Ilyas, Asif M |
author_sort | Talebi, Ramin |
collection | PubMed |
description | Introduction Diversion of unused prescription opioids is a common source of opioid sensitization in the community. Educating patients about safe opioid use has been shown to be effective in decreasing opioid use. However, decreasing diversion will also require educating patients on proper opioid disposal. A survey was administered to better understand patients’ habits with opioid disposal for opioids prescribed after orthopedic surgery. Methods A cross-sectional survey study of 469 patients who had undergone orthopedic surgery was conducted to learn their preferences and habits regarding the disposal of unused prescription opioids received after orthopedic surgery. Results The survey respondents consisted of 48.8% female and 51.2% male patients. Ninety-four point two percent (94.2%) of those receiving opioid prescriptions reported having leftover unused opioids. In terms of voluntary disposal, 68.8% claimed to dispose of their prescription opioids while 31.2% did not. Gender, but not age, had a significant effect on plans for opioid disposal and how seriously respondents viewed issues of opioid misuse. When asked their preferred location for prescription opioid disposal, the most common preference was a local pharmacy. Discussion This survey identified that most patients do not store their prescription opioids in a locked location, claim to dispose of their unused prescription opioids, and would prefer to dispose of them at a pharmacy if possible. This information points to the need for close prescriber-to-pharmacy collaboration to promote the safe disposal of prescription opioids and mitigate drug diversion. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9481200 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Cureus |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-94812002022-09-20 How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients Talebi, Ramin Miller, Chaim Abboudi, Jack Brahmabhatt, Shyam Emper, William Lonner, Jess Kistler, Justin Mazur, Donald Pedowitz, David Ilyas, Asif M Cureus Pain Management Introduction Diversion of unused prescription opioids is a common source of opioid sensitization in the community. Educating patients about safe opioid use has been shown to be effective in decreasing opioid use. However, decreasing diversion will also require educating patients on proper opioid disposal. A survey was administered to better understand patients’ habits with opioid disposal for opioids prescribed after orthopedic surgery. Methods A cross-sectional survey study of 469 patients who had undergone orthopedic surgery was conducted to learn their preferences and habits regarding the disposal of unused prescription opioids received after orthopedic surgery. Results The survey respondents consisted of 48.8% female and 51.2% male patients. Ninety-four point two percent (94.2%) of those receiving opioid prescriptions reported having leftover unused opioids. In terms of voluntary disposal, 68.8% claimed to dispose of their prescription opioids while 31.2% did not. Gender, but not age, had a significant effect on plans for opioid disposal and how seriously respondents viewed issues of opioid misuse. When asked their preferred location for prescription opioid disposal, the most common preference was a local pharmacy. Discussion This survey identified that most patients do not store their prescription opioids in a locked location, claim to dispose of their unused prescription opioids, and would prefer to dispose of them at a pharmacy if possible. This information points to the need for close prescriber-to-pharmacy collaboration to promote the safe disposal of prescription opioids and mitigate drug diversion. Cureus 2022-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9481200/ /pubmed/36134102 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.28111 Text en Copyright © 2022, Talebi et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Pain Management Talebi, Ramin Miller, Chaim Abboudi, Jack Brahmabhatt, Shyam Emper, William Lonner, Jess Kistler, Justin Mazur, Donald Pedowitz, David Ilyas, Asif M How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients |
title | How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients |
title_full | How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients |
title_fullStr | How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients |
title_full_unstemmed | How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients |
title_short | How Patients Dispose of Unused Prescription Opioids: A Survey of over 300 Postoperative Patients |
title_sort | how patients dispose of unused prescription opioids: a survey of over 300 postoperative patients |
topic | Pain Management |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9481200/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36134102 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.28111 |
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