Impact of prescription drug monitoring program mandate on postoperative opioid prescriptions in children
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Read the article on link.springer.com ↗Article · Jan 2021 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
Study of 386 pediatric surgical patients found that statewide PDMP mandate was associated with reduced long-duration opioid prescriptions (>5 days) but not overall prescription rates. Results suggest PDMPs may help limit excessive opioid supply in children without eliminating appropriate postoperative analgesia.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Abstract
Purpose
Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) have been established to combat the opioid epidemic, but there is no data on their efficacy in children. We hypothesized that a statewide PDMP mandate would be associated with fewer opioid prescriptions in pediatric surgical patients.
Methods
Patients < 18 undergoing inguinal hernia repair, orchiopexy, orchiectomy, appendectomy, or cholecystectomy at a tertiary children’s hospital were included. The primary outcome, discharge opioid prescription, was compared for 10 months pre-PDMP (n = 158) to 10 months post-PDMP (n = 228). Interrupted time series analysis was performed to determine the effect of the PDMP on opioid prescribing.
Results
Over the 20-month study period, there was an overall decrease in the rate of opioid prescriptions per month (− 3.6% change, p < 0.001). On interrupted time series analysis, PDMP implementation was not associated with a significant decrease in the monthly rate of opioid prescriptions (1.27% change post-PDMP, p = 0.4). However, PDMP implementation was associated with a reduction in opioid prescriptions of greater than 5 days’ supply (− 2.7% per month, p = 0.03).
Conclusion
Opioid prescriptions declined in pediatric surgical patients over the study time period. State-wide PDMP implementation was associated with a reduction in postoperative opioid prescriptions of more than 5 days’ duration.