Prescription abuse rampant in W.Va.

West Virginia University researchers recently published a study confirming West Virginia’s highest nation-wide prescription drug death rates.

The study, which was conducted by a team of researchers at WVU, investigated data from the West Virginia Controlled Substance Monitoring Program (WV CSMP), WVU Injury Control Research Center and drug related death data found in the Forensic Drug Database.

The article reporting the research, "Doctor and Pharmacy Shopping for Controlled Substances," appeared in an issue of "Medical Care" in June.

Marie Abate, professor at the WVU School of Pharmacy was one of the researchers who worked on the study.

Abate said doctor shoppers are those who go to various doctors’ offices for the sole purpose of getting prescriptions for controlled substances.

The study examined 698 adults categorized as deceased out of nearly one million sampled.

Doctor shoppers accounted for around 25 percent of deceased adults, while nearly 17.5 percent of the deceased adults were pharmacy shoppers.

The study essentially shows that the people who died were more likely to be the doctor shoppers who obtained their medicine without being monitored accurately, she said.

"They may go to another doctor and get the same medicines or similar medicines for the purpose of either misusing or abusing drugs," she said.

Abate said no one is quite sure why West Virginia has the highest drug death rate in the United States.

However, Abate said she believes it could be result from a number of issues.

"It may be because patients sell their medications to others as a way of getting money for themselves, or it’s just doctors are not prescribing the drugs correctly," she said.

"It may be a combination of several things."

Abate also said individuals from other states may be traveling to West Virginia for the purpose of buying and selling prescription drugs.

Because of the current drug monitoring system, WV CSMP, doctors or pharmacists are not allowed to check out-of-state patient’s history.

However, professionals are working on establishing a program called the National Association of Board of Pharmacy (NABP).

They intend to have one monitoring program in each state, which will allow pharmacists to access each patient’s prescriptions in entirety, including prescriptions given in other states.

"Right now each state has it’s own program, not all the states even have a controlled substance monitoring program yet, but they want to combine all the states into one big program," Abate said.

"It wouldn’t matter if one patient got a
prescription filled for one medicine in Ohio or Pennsylvania because a
pharmacist in West Virginia would be able to see that, which would be a big plus."

Abate said the hope is to bring understanding to the state on the severity of
prescription drug abuse.

"I think people need to understand that these drugs can be very dangerous, even if they are not taking large amounts of them," she said.

"But if they are combining various drugs – especially if they are having any alcohol – those combinations can be very dangerous and even deadly in some cases.

"Ultimately, our goal is to identify
characteristics of the drugs involved and if any particular combinations are even more dangerous or deadly, so we can educate people – including students."

danewsroom@mail.wvu.edu

West Virginia University researchers recently published a study confirming West Virginia’s highest nation-wide prescription drug death rates.

The study, which was conducted by a team of researchers at WVU, investigated data from the West Virginia Controlled Substance Monitoring Program (WV CSMP), WVU Injury Control Research Center and drug related death data found in the Forensic Drug Database.

The article reporting the research, "Doctor and Pharmacy Shopping for Controlled Substances," appeared in an issue of "Medical Care" in June.

Marie Abate, professor at the WVU School of Pharmacy was one of the researchers who worked on the study.

Abate said doctor shoppers are those who go to various doctors’ offices for the sole purpose of getting prescriptions for controlled substances.

The study examined 698 adults categorized as deceased out of nearly one million sampled.

Doctor shoppers accounted for around 25 percent of deceased adults, while nearly 17.5 percent of the deceased adults were pharmacy shoppers.

The study essentially shows that the people who died were more likely to be the doctor shoppers who obtained their medicine without being monitored accurately, she said.

"They may go to another doctor and get the same medicines or similar medicines for the purpose of either misusing or abusing drugs," she said.

Abate said no one is quite sure why West Virginia has the highest drug death rate in the United States.

However, Abate said she believes it could be result from a number of issues.

"It may be because patients sell their medications to others as a way of getting money for themselves, or it’s just doctors are not prescribing the drugs correctly," she said.

"It may be a combination of several things."

Abate also said individuals from other states may be traveling to West Virginia for the purpose of buying and selling prescription drugs.

Because of the current drug monitoring system, WV CSMP, doctors or pharmacists are not allowed to check out-of-state patient’s history.

However, professionals are working on establishing a program called the National Association of Board of Pharmacy (NABP).

They intend to have one monitoring program in each state, which will allow pharmacists to access each patient’s prescriptions in entirety, including prescriptions given in other states.

"Right now each state has it’s own program, not all the states even have a controlled substance monitoring program yet, but they want to combine all the states into one big program," Abate said.

"It wouldn’t matter if one patient got a prescription filled for one medicine in Ohio or Pennsylvania because a pharmacist in West Virginia would be able to see that, which would be a big plus."

Abate said the hope is to bring understanding to the state on the severity of prescription drug abuse.

"I think people need to understand that these drugs can be very dangerous, even if they are not taking large amounts of them," she said.

"But if they are combining various drugs – especially if they are having any alcohol – those combinations can be very dangerous and even deadly in some cases.

"Ultimately, our goal is to identify characteristics of the drugs involved and if any particular combinations are even more dangerous or deadly, so we can educate people – including students."