Opioid prescriptions in U.S. holding steady

Despite efforts made to combat the opioid crisis, a study from Mayo Clinic finds that use of opioids by most groups has remained steady, and the overall rate of opioid prescriptions in the U.S. has not fallen significantly for many patients over the last 10 years.

“Our research of patient-level data doesn’t show the decline that was found in most previous research,” Molly Jeffery, the scientific director of the Mayo Clinic Division of Emergency Medicine Research and the lead author of the study said in a press release.

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The Hill reports that, according to the study, from 2007 to 2016, annual opioid usage among commercially insured patients was at 14 percent. In addition, the quarterly prescription rate held relatively steady for aged Medicare beneficiaries, rising from 11 percent to 14 percent over the decade.

Disabled Medicare beneficiaries, who had the highest rates of opioid use among those viewed in the study, went up considerably more; in 2007, opioid use was 26 percent quarterly, rising to 39 percent in 2016. The average daily dose also rose.

Use of opioids increased as age increased, with children (those 18 or younger) having a much lower prevalence of use than older groups; the oldest commercial beneficiaries, said the report, having the highest. Commercial beneficiaries aged 45–54 years had the highest average daily dose from the first quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2013. From Q1 of 2014, commercial beneficiaries aged 55–64 years had a similar daily dose compared to those aged 45–54 years.

Among the commercial population, hydrocodone was the most commonly filled drug by a substantial margin, but when it comes to volume, oxycodone and hydrocodone came out to similar amounts. Hydrocodone prescription fills did fall “substantially” after 2011 in that group, while oxycodone stayed relatively flat; results were similar in the aged and disabled Medicare populations.

Among commercial and disabled Medicare patients, according to the report, use was somewhat less concentrated in the top percentiles of opioid users over time. The top 5 percent of opioid users in the disabled Medicare group in 2007 accounted for 49 percent of opioids used by that group, but by 2016, the top 5 percent accounted for just 41 percent of opioids used. Among aged Medicare patients, use concentration didn’t change to a significant degree over the course of the study period.