Emergency Departments Are Not to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic

Two studies show that EDs and episodic providers account for a small proportion of prescribed opioids.

Opioid prescriptions have increased in recent years and opioid-related deaths have surged. Who is prescribing all these pills? Two new studies are informative.

In a retrospective analysis of data from the nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, investigators observed a 471% increase in the total quantity of opioids prescribed in the U.S. from 1996 to 2012. The proportion of opioids from office-based prescriptions increased from 71% in 1996 to 83% in 2012. The proportion originating from the emergency department (ED) was only 7.4% in 1996, and declined to 4.4% in 2012. For the top 5% of opioid consumers, prescriptions from the ED accounted for only 2.4% of their total milligrams of morphine equivalents, compared with 87.8%…

Reviewing Author

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education

Grant/Research SupportAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CDC; NIH–National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; NIH–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); NIH–NIAID–Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group; Merck; Pfizer; Boehringer-Ingelheim; Shire; Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Novartis; bioMérieux; Siemens; Rapid Pathogen Screening; Magnolia; Stago; Innovative Biosensors; Molecular Detection, Inc.; Dyax Corp.; Trius Pharmaceuticals

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education

Emergency Departments Are Not to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic

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Reviewing Author