What are characteristics that increase the chance a patient is at risk for opioid-related death? A recent JAMA article begins to tackle this very issues. Baumblatt et al. found the following:
1) Patient with 4 or more prescribers had adjusted odds ratio 6.5 for opioid-related death
2) Patient with 4 or more pharmacies where they get their prescriptions aOR - 6.0
3) Patient with more than 100 mg of morphine equivalents mean per day aOR - 11.2
With the new Maryland Prescription Drug Monitoring program (PDMP) we can start looking at a patient's prescription drug use pattern. The recent JAMA article can help you identify patients at high risk to die an opioid-related death. Use the PDMP and be wary if a patient has more than 4 prescribers or pharmacies or has >100mg of morphine equivalents per day.
