In a frightening study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that adds to the ruins of the prescription painkiller epidemic, nearly 40% of Medicaid patients prescribed opiate painkillers are misusing or abusing the dangerous drugs.
The most commonly prescribed opiate drugs are codeine, Demerol, morphine, Vicodin, and OxyContin. The CDC chose to highlight these problems in order to raise awareness among medical professionals. Compared to people with private insurance options, Medicaid patients were much more likely to be prescribed stronger painkillers and have more prescriptions.
According to the CDC, almost half of prescription drug overdose deaths are people on Medicaid, which provides health coverage mostly to the poor. By giving Medicaid patients more powerful painkillers, this practice is placing an already vulnerable group at risk of abuse, overdose, and death.
“Some fraction of it is probably due to misuse of one kind or another,” said Leonard Paulozzi, a CDC medical epidemiologist and author on the study. “It re-emphasizes getting the best possible management of pain, mental health and other problems.”
With sales quadrupling since 1999, prescription opiate use is on the rise nationwide. Misuse among Medicaid patients may be due to poverty or how their healthcare is delivered. Paulozzi explained how a large number of patients are being cared for by a small number of providers, Medicaid patients with an opiate drug prescription had about six prescriptions on average in 2010.
For the study, researchers examined medical records of more than 350,000 Medicaid patients with a prescription for opiate painkillers in 2010. Misuse was determined if there were overlaps between prescriptions, high daily doses or long acting formulas for acute pain.