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Progress made in opioid analgesic abuse trends

Trends in controlling the abuse of opioid analgesic medications in the United States have made progress, according to data published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers culled data from five programs within the Researched Abuse, Diversion, and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS) System: the Drug Diversion Program, Poison Center Program, Opioid Treatment Program, Survey of Key Informants’ Program and College Survey Program.

In early 2006, there were 47 million prescriptions dispensed per quarter in the U.S. for the opioid analgesics included in this study, researchers wrote. Despite a peak in the fourth quarter of 2012 in which 62 million prescriptions were dispensed, trends appeared to decrease slightly from 2011 through 2013 (at 60 million prescriptions per calendar quarter).

Event rates for opioid use

The event rate for prescription opioids increased from about 1.5 per 100,000 population in 2002 to 2.9 in 2012, before decreasing to 2.5 by the end of 2013 in the Drug Diversion Program.

The quarterly abuse rate elevated from 0.20 per 100,000 population in 2003 to 0.56 in 2010, but decreased to 0.35 by the end of 2013 in the Poison Center Program. In the Opioid Treatment Program, the rate increased from1.6 per 100,000 population in 2005 to 7.3 in 2010 and decreased to 3.5 by the end of 2013.

Furthermore, the rate increased from 1.5 per 100,000 population in 2008 to 3.8 in 2011, but decreased to 2.8 by the end of 2013 in the SKIP Program. Data from the College Survey Program indicated that the rate of nonmedical use increased from 0.14 per 100,000 population in 2008 to 0.35 by the end of 2013.

Heroin use and mortality trends

The rate of heroin-related cases appeared to increase in 2006, and then again in 2010, the researchers wrote.

“Whatever the precise cause, changes in rate of opioid analgesic abuse are associated with increasing heroin-related mortality,” they wrote.

Data from the Opioid Treatment Program demonstrated that the rate of heroin use from 2005 through 2013 was flat. This rate increased in 2011 and remained increased, according to data from the SKIP Program.

Heroin usage appeared elusive but flat overall in the College Survey Program. However, reports of heroin use tended to increase after 2005 in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, according to data.

Data from the National Poison Data System linked heroin use with an inverse relationship to the rate of death associated with prescription opioid use, according to data.

“Our results suggest that the United States is making progress in combating the abuse of prescription opioid analgesics,” the researchers concluded.

Disclosure: See the study for a full list of the researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.