The majority of U.S. primary care physicians may not be able to recognize prescription drug misuse, a recent study by Quest Diagnostics found.
The Oct. 16 report, titled "Drug Misuse in America 2019: Physician Perspectives and Diagnostics Insights on the Evolving Drug Crisis," surveyed 500 physicians about the use of controlled prescribed medications, such as opioids, amphetamines and benzodiazepines, as well as illicit drugs.
Researchers juxtaposed the physician survey responses with an analysis of more than 4.4 million de-identified aggregate drug monitoring test results ordered by physicians for patients prescribed controlled medications between 2011 and 2018.
Key findings from the study include that physicians may be overconfident in their ability to recognize prescription drug misuse and physicians underestimate drug mixing by their patients. In addition, the study found that while gabapentin is emerging as an alternative to opioids for pain therapy, its misuse is also increasing.
The results show that 62 percent of physicians fear the opioid crisis will be substituted by a new prescription drug crisis and 72 percent worry that chronic pain patients will turn to illicit drugs if they don't have access to prescription opioids.
Additionally, 70 percent of physicians wish they had more training on how to taper their patients off opioids.
"We found that primary care physicians, who are on the front lines of the drug epidemic, are well-intentioned but under-prepared and may miss some of the drug misuse risks affecting their patients, as reflected by our nationally representative laboratory data," said Harvey Kaufman, MD, senior medical director of the health trends research program at Quest Diagnostics who was a co-author of the study.
Read the full study here.