High-Dose Opioid Prescribing in Individuals with Acute Pain: Assessing the Effects of US State Opioid Policies

Background

How state opioid policy environments with multiple concurrent policies affect opioid prescribing to individuals with acute pain is unknown.

Objective

To examine how prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), pain management clinic regulations, initial prescription duration limits, and mandatory continued medical education affected total and high-dose prescribing.

Design

A county-level multiple-policy difference-in-difference event study framework.

Subjects

A total of 2,425,643 individuals in a large national commercial insurance deidentified claims database (aged 12–64 years) with acute pain diagnoses and opioid prescriptions from 2007 to 2019.

Main Measures

The total number of acute pain opioid treatment episodes and number of episodes containing high-dose (> 90 morphine equivalent daily dosage (MEDD)) prescriptions.

Key Results

Approximately 7.5% of acute pain episodes were categorized as high-dose episodes. Prescription duration limits were associated with increases in the number of total episodes; no other policy was found to have a significant impact. Beginning five quarters after implementation, counties in states with pain management clinic regulations experienced a sustained 50% relative decline in the number of episodes containing > 90 MEDD prescriptions (95 CIs: (Q5: − 0.506, − 0.144; Q12: − 1.000, − 0.290)). Mandated continuing medical education regarding the treatment of pain was associated with a 50–75% relative increase in number of high-dose episodes following the first year-and-a-half of enactment (95 CIs: (Q7: 0.351, 0.869; Q12: 0.413, 1.107)). Initial prescription duration limits were associated with an initial relative reduction of 25% in high-dose prescribing, with the effect increasing over time (95 CI: (Q12: − 0.967, − 0.335). There was no evidence that PDMPs affected high-dose opioids dispensed to individuals with acute pain. Other high-risk prescribing indicators were explored as well; no consistent policy impacts were found.

Conclusions

State opioid policies may have differential effects on high-dose opioid dispensing in individuals with acute pain. Policymakers should consider effectiveness of individual policies in the presence of other opioid policies to address the ongoing opioid crisis.