Narcotics in the medicine cabinet: Provider talk is key to lower risk
Summary/Excerpts
Prescription opioid misuse has been declared an American epidemic and a significant proportion of misused opioids are diverted from legitimate prescriptions. Patient education regarding appropriate use and the dangers of misuse has been identified as a key intervention target. The current study presents findings from the open pilot of a patient-tailored, brief, web-based intervention designed to improve knowledge of safe medication use, storage and disposal.
Key Statistics
Before completing the intervention, more than half of participants were unaware of safe locations to properly store opioid medications or how to properly dispose of unused pills (54.8%).
The majority of participants were aware that using expired medications is not recommended (75.8%).
The majority of participants were aware that lending their medication to others is unsafe behavior (95.2%).
Patient intervention produced significant increases in knowledge regarding: (1) prescription storage (2) medication disposal; (3) borrowing pills from others; (4) saving unused opioid pills; and (5) using expired medications.
Citation
McCauley JL, Back SE, Brady KT. Pilot of a brief, web-based educational intervention targeting safe storage and disposal of prescription opioids. Addict Behav. 2013;38(6):2230–2235.