States with Broad Drug Abuse Prevention Programs Excelling

Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Tennessee all have one thing in common; they have all implemented a broad drug abuse prevention program. These multi-faceted programs have showed the heighted rate of decline in prescription drug misuse rates according to a study published by Quest Diagnostics. Quest’s findings suggest that broad, collaborative measures in conjunction with physician and patient education are helping to slow the epidemic of prescription drug abuse. The use of databases has also proven to be a large help in tracking and keeping detailed records of consistency issues with medication.

In Quest’s study, 55% of prescription misuse was observed across all age groups in both males and females. There was an 8% decrease in inconsistency rate from 2011 to 2013, which suggests that physicians may be doing a better job communicating about the importance of adhering to a regimen coupled with patients exercising better prescription drug compliance, a broader representation of patients being tested for drug use.

On the horizon there is hope that this issue will be under control soon enough. 49 states either operate or have pending legislation authorizing prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP). It’s thanks to robust databases that collect prescribing and dispensing information, that this data will be able to aid state law officials as well as doctors in making educated decisions.