Most clinical specialties recorded declines in the MME volume per practicing clinician. Counties that experienced substantial decreases in per capita MME often were adjacent to counties with per capita increases. In many other states, there were counties with both increases and others with substantial decreases. In some states, MME volume per capita increased in multiple counties. Substantial variation existed both within and across states. The study found that over the study period, per capita MME volume declined the most in metropolitan counties (more than 22%) and in counties with higher rates of fatal opioid overdoses (a 35% decline). Because opioids are available in different forms, this measurement provides a better assessment of the total amount of opioids filled by patients as compared to just the number of pills dispensed. They used days' supply and total daily opioid dose to calculate per capita morphine milligram equivalents (MME) for opioid prescriptions filled during the study period. The prescription information came from IQVIA Prescription data, which captures about 90% of prescriptions filled at U.S. RAND researchers examined differences in opioid prescriptions filled at pharmacies during the periods of 2008 through 20 through 2018. The number of opioid prescriptions peaked in 2011. State, federal and private initiatives have been undertaken to encourage physicians and other health providers to reduce the number of prescriptions written for opioids to treat pain.
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opioid crisis, which has led to widespread addiction and now kills more than 100,000 Americans annually.
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WORKING MME EFFECT DRIVER
There is wide agreement that the overprescribing of opioid medication for pain was a key driver in creation of the U.S. "But the work demonstrates that there is a lot more nuance in the changes in opioid prescribing than we previously understood." Stein, the study's lead author and a senior physician researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "The findings do not provide concrete answers about how much of the unnecessary prescribing of opioids has been eliminated," said Dr. The study, published by the Annals of Internal Medicine, is the first to examine the decline in opioid prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies based on both volume and potency of the drugs dispensed.