Trends in Dispensed Opioid Analgesic Prescriptions to Children in South Carolina: 2010-2017.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite published declines in opioid prescribing and dispensing to children in the past decade, in few studies have researchers evaluated all children in 1 state or examined changes in mean daily opioid dispensed. In this study, we evaluated changes in the rate of dispensed opioid analgesics and the mean daily opioid dispensed to persons 0 to 18 years old in 1 state over an 8-year period. METHODS: We identified opioid analgesics dispensed to children 0 to 18 years old between 2010 and 2017 using South Carolina prescription drug monitoring program data. We used generalized linear regression analyses to examine changes over time in the following: (1) rate of dispensed opioid prescriptions and (2) mean daily morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) per prescription. RESULTS: From the first quarter of 2010 to the end of the fourth quarter of 2017, the quarterly rate of opioids dispensed decreased from 18.68 prescriptions per 1000 state residents to 12.03 per 1000 residents (P, .0001). The largest declines were among the oldest individuals, such as the 41.2% decline among 18-year-olds. From 2010 through 2017, the mean daily MME dispensed declined by 7.6%, from 40.7 MMEs per day in 2010 to 37.6 MMEs per day in 2017 (P, .0001), but the decrease was limited to children 0 to 9 years old. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of opioid analgesic prescriptions dispensed to children 0 to 18 years old in South Carolina declined by 35.6% over the years 2010--2017; however, the MME dispensed per day declined minimally, suggesting that more can be done to improve opioid prescribing and dispensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Pediatrics is the property of American Academy of Pediatrics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)