Dramatic shifts in first-time opioid prescriptions bring hope, concern
A national call for restraint in opioid prescribing has yielded dramatic progress in clinician prescribing patterns, but leaves some notable room for improvement. These are the findings of a new study from Harvard Medical School (HMS) showing a drop of more than 50 percent in monthly opioid prescribing for new patients. Despite this marked decrease, the research showed, a subset of physicians have persisted in doling out prescriptions for these potent drugs at concerning dosages and lengths. At the same time, others have stopped writing any new prescriptions for opioid pain relief, raising the question of whether some patients might be getting less-than-adequate treatment for their pain. The study findings, based on an analysis of more than 86 million privately insured patients across the U.S. between 2012 and 2017, appear March 14 in The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings show a dramatic drop — 54 percent — in the rate of monthly opioid...