Effect of a "pill mill" law on opioid prescribing and utilization: The case of Texas.

ABSTRACT:

Background

States have attempted to reduce prescription opioid abuse through strengthening the regulation of pain management clinics; however, the effect of such measures remains unclear. We quantified the impact of Texas's September 2010 "pill mill" law on opioid prescribing and utilization.

Methods

We used the IMS Health LRx LifeLink database to examine anonymized, patient-level pharmacy claims for a closed cohort of individuals filling prescription opioids in Texas between September 2009 and August 2011. Our primary outcomes were derived at a monthly level and included: (1) average morphine equivalent dose (MED) per transaction; (2) aggregate opioid volume; (3) number of opioid prescriptions; and (4) quantity of opioid pills dispensed. We compared observed values with the

SUBMITTER: Lyapustina T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4976392 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature