How People Obtain the Prescription Pain Relievers They Misuse

Prescription drug misuse is a public health concern. It can be useful to understand the sources of the prescription drugs that are misused and whether these sources differ based on the type of user misusing the substance.  This report uses combined 2013 and 2014 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to estimate nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers and the source for the most recently misused pain reliever by past year misusers. Results are shown by three mutually exclusive groups: (1) recent initiates, (2) nonrecent initiate frequent users, and (3) nonrecent initiate occasional users. Recent initiates are defined as those who initiated misuse of prescription pain relievers in the past year. Occasional users are defined as those who were not recent initiates and misused prescription pain relievers fewer than 52 days in the past year. Frequent users are defined as those who were not recent initiates and misused prescription pain relievers on 52 days or more in the past year.  An annual average of 10.7 million people aged 12 or older misused prescription pain relievers in the past year. About one-half of those who misused prescription pain relievers in the past year said that they obtained the prescription pain relievers they had most recently misused from a friend or relative for free. For all three types of users, the two most commonly cited sources of obtaining the prescription pain relievers were obtaining the drugs from a friend or relative for free and obtaining the drugs from one doctor. Frequent users were more likely than recent initiates and occasional users to obtain their most recently misused pain relievers by buying them from a friend or relative, by buying them from a drug dealer or other stranger, or by obtaining them from more than one doctor.  Results of this report suggest that Americans may be able to play a direct role in impacting access to these prescription pain relievers by not sharing their prescription medications and disposing of unused pain relievers once the need for the medication has passed. Regardless of age, gender, or type of user, most people who misuse prescription pain relievers obtained the drugs from a friend or relative. However, the second most common source was from one doctor. Therefore, to reduce the availability of pain relievers for nonmedical use, medical practitioners may need to not only continue to exercise care in prescribing and monitoring their patients for signs of misuse, but they may also consider whether to counsel their patients about disposing of remaining dosage units.