A new national Prescription Drug Monitoring Program is one of several clinical and policy recommendations from the American College of Physicians aimed at reducing patient abuse and street sales of drugs prescribed for pain, sleep disorders, and weight loss.
The proposed national Prescription Drug Monitoring Program potentially could help physicians avoid drug interactions and identify drug-seeking and "doctor shopping" behaviors, according to the policy paper published online in Annals of Internal Medicine (2013 Dec. 10 [doi: 10.7326/M13-2209]).
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The American College of Physicians is recommending clinical and administrative changes to make it harder for prescription drugs to be abused or diverted for sale on the street.
The paper also calls for the establishment of evidence-based, nonbinding guidelines regarding recommended maximum dosage and duration of therapy for patients taking controlled substance medications. Additional efforts are urged to reduce substance abuse and to increase medical research on addiction and its causes and treatments.
"Prescription drug abuse is found throughout all aspects of our population," the ACP position paper says. "The challenge for physicians and public policymakers is how to deter prescription drug abuse while maintaining patient access to appropriate treatment."
Physicians have an ethical obligation to manage and relieve pain, the position paper said, yet they must do so responsibly and in accordance with scientific evidence. In the paper, ACP said it supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse that covers education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement.
According to a 2010 survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 16 million Americans aged 12 years and up had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the previous year. In addition, another 2010 report found 2.4 million opioid abusers in the United States, 60% of whom obtained the drugs either directly or indirectly through a doctor’s prescription.
The authors did not report any disclosures.