Impact of Three Safety Interventions Targeting Off-Label Use of Immediate-Release Fentanyl on Prescription Trends: Interrupted Time Series Analysis.

ABSTRACT: Background: The Spanish health authorities are concerned by the off-label use of immediate-release formulations of fentanyl (IRF) in noncancer pain and cancer pain in patients with no chronic pain therapy. Aim: To evaluate the impact of different interventions to improve appropriateness of IRF prescription on off-label prescription. Patients and methods: We used interrupted time series (ITS) to estimate immediate and trend changes of IRF prescription for noncancer pain (NCP) and breakthrough cancer pain (BCP) in patients with and without chronic cancer pain therapy associated with two medication reviews (I1 and I2) and the issue of a safety warning letter (I3) with data from a Spanish region with 5 million inhabitants, from 2015 to 2018. Results: The use of IRF

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Sempere A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9016332 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature