Prevalence of substance misuse in new patients in an outpatient psychiatry clinic using a prescription monitoring program.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the value of a prescription monitoring program in identifying prescription drug misuse among patients presenting to a resident physician outpatient psychiatry clinic at an academic medical center.

METHOD

Participants were 314 new patients aged 18 years or older presenting to the clinic from October 2011 to June 2012. Resident physicians completed a data collection form for each participant using information from the patient interview and from the prescription monitoring program report. Prescription drug misuse was defined as having any 1 of the following 5 criteria in the prescription monitoring program report: (1) filled prescriptions for 2 or more controlled substances, (2) obtained prescriptions from 2 or more providers, (3) obtained early refills, (4) used 3 or more pharmacies, and (5) the prescription monitoring program report conflicted with the patient's report.

RESULTS

At least 1 indicator of prescription drug misuse was found in 41.7% of patients. Over 69% of the patients that the residents believed were misusing prescription drugs actually met 1 of the criteria for prescription drug misuse. The prescription monitoring program report changed the management only 2.2% of the time. Patients with prior benzodiazepine use (χ(2) 1 = 17.68, P < .001), prior opioid use (χ(2) 1 = 19.98, P < .001), a personality disorder (χ(2) 1 = 7.22, P < .001), and chronic pain (χ(2) 1 = 14.31, P < .001) had a higher percentage of prescription drug misuse compared to patients without these factors.

CONCLUSION

Using the prescription monitoring program to screen patients with prior benzodiazepine and opioid use, with a personality disorder, and/or with chronic pain may be useful in confirming the suspicion of prescription drug misuse identified at the initial evaluation.