Behavioral Insights to Encourage Judicious Prescribing of Opioids
| Status: | Completed |
|---|---|
| Conditions: | Psychiatric |
| Therapuetic Areas: | Psychiatry / Psychology |
| Healthy: | No |
| Age Range: | Any |
| Updated: | 2/9/2019 |
| Start Date: | January 27, 2017 |
| End Date: | February 27, 2018 |
Use of Behavioral Insights to Encourage Judicious Prescribing of Opioids
In collaboration with the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office and the State of California's
controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), the investigators
propose to review opioid poisonings over the past 12 months and will send letters to
prescribers in California when at least one of the provider's prescription(s) was filled by a
patient who died of an opioid poisoning in San Diego County. The letters will be
non-judgmental and factual, explaining that a patient of the provider who was being treated
with prescription narcotics died of an opioid poisoning. The letter will also encourage
judicious prescribing including use of the CURES system before prescribing. The investigators
will evaluate physician prescribing practices over 24 months 12 months pre- and 12 months
post-letter using data from the CURES database. The investigators' hypothesis is that letters
will make the risk of opioids more cognitively available and that physicians will respond by
prescribing opioids more carefully. This will result in fewer deaths due to misuse and more
frequent use of the CURES system.
controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), the investigators
propose to review opioid poisonings over the past 12 months and will send letters to
prescribers in California when at least one of the provider's prescription(s) was filled by a
patient who died of an opioid poisoning in San Diego County. The letters will be
non-judgmental and factual, explaining that a patient of the provider who was being treated
with prescription narcotics died of an opioid poisoning. The letter will also encourage
judicious prescribing including use of the CURES system before prescribing. The investigators
will evaluate physician prescribing practices over 24 months 12 months pre- and 12 months
post-letter using data from the CURES database. The investigators' hypothesis is that letters
will make the risk of opioids more cognitively available and that physicians will respond by
prescribing opioids more carefully. This will result in fewer deaths due to misuse and more
frequent use of the CURES system.
The investigators will not be enrolling subjects. This is an evaluation of a public health
intervention involving sending prescriber's factual and nonjudgmental letters, signed by
the County Medical Examiner, that would state that a patient the provider had treated with
controlled substances died of an opioid poisoning.
Inclusion Criteria:
- Prescribers in California for whom at least one of their prescription(s) was filled by
a patient who died of an opioid poisoning in San Diego County
Exclusion Criteria:
- Prescriber is licensed outside the State of California and does not hold a California
license, but the prescription was filled in California
- The prescriber does not have a CURES report on record
- The prescriber has issued only one opioid prescription in the last 12 months since the
time of the deceased death (and the prescription was to the deceased)
- Prescriptions with unknown DEA
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