Second Report from Controlled Substances Board Continues to Show Drop in Opioid Prescriptions
More than 11 million fewer opioid doses dispensed in Q4 2016 compared to Q4 2015
![Pills by Tom Varco (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.](https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1024px-Lexapro_pills.jpg)
Pills by Tom Varco (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
“This report indicates our efforts throughout Wisconsin to fight prescription drug abuse and misuse are working,” Governor Walker said. “We remain committed to creating a safe state for all our citizens, and we will not stop until the number of opioid overdose deaths in Wisconsin is down to zero.”
The report also includes information on the number of requests for data made by health care professionals about their patients, the number and makeup of reports submitted by law enforcement, and data on doctor shopping and pharmacy hopping. It further provides information on the number of individuals receiving both opioids and benzodiazepine prescriptions.
“The PDMP is a program that we are incredibly proud of,” said DSPS Acting Secretary Eric Esser. “We are hopeful that with the tools available in the new enhanced PDMP, we continue to enable healthcare professionals to make informed prescribing decisions.”
The Wisconsin PDMP was deployed in June 2013 and is administered by DSPS. Since its inception, the PDMP has primarily been a tool to help healthcare professionals make more informed decisions about prescribing and dispensing controlled substance prescriptions to patients. It also discloses data as authorized by law to governmental and law enforcement agencies. It stores over 48 million prescription records submitted by over 2,000 pharmacies and dispensing practitioners, with an average of nearly 5,000 queries performed each day.
Click here for a copy of the Controlled Substances Board report.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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Yes, the number of prescriptions is declining but some are at the expense of people with severe pain. When the FDC put out “guidelines” for prescribing opioids, the pain clinics in SE Wisconsin took those to mean they were strict rules for prescribing opioids and cut the amount of pain medication for people with severe pain just so that they could say they were cutting back. Unfortunately the quality of life has now been greatly diminished for those people. This is exactly what I feared would happen from the rhetoric I was hearing from lawmakers to cut use no matter what. Thank you so very much for your unintelligent action which is hurting many people you never intended to get hurt. Now, how about you get out and learn from those people you have hurt and make changes that will once again improve their quality of life. It’s the least you can do. If you ever wonder what pushes people to take heroin or other illegal pain relief substances, this is one thing that surely could do it. No one I personally know would do that though. They simply suffer in silence day after day because they have no other choice.