Report: 34 Percent Decline in Opioid Prescribing since 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Mark Jackson, Executive Director (334) 954-2500

CONTACT: Mallory Camerio, Director of Communications (334) 954-2580

Report: 34 Percent Decline in Opioid Prescribing since 2014

According to a new report released by the American Medical Association, Alabama physicians have reduced opioid prescribing by 34.4% since 2014, increased the use of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) and decreased the total morphine milligram equivalents by 46.6% since 2014. Our physicians also have continued to educate themselves on safe prescribing, pain management and recognizing signs of addiction. 

“Everyone can agree there is no quick fix to the country’s opioid epidemic. In Alabama, our physicians took a leadership role many years ago by taking a hard look at where we were and where we needed to be,” said Mark Jackson, executive director of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. “As an association, we created the first educational program to train our physicians, and we passed legislation to reduce prescription drug abuse and diversion. Even though Alabama has come a long way in the fight against opioids, we have a long way yet to go.”

Key points from the 2020 report:

• Opioid prescribing decreases for the sixth year in a row. Between 2013 and 2019, the number of opioid prescriptions decreased by more than 90 million — a 37.1 percent decrease nationally.

• Total morphine milligram equivalents has decreased by 46.6% since 2014 in Alabama.

• Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) registrations and use continue to increase. In 2019, health care professionals in Alabama accessed state PDMPs more than 4 million times – a 20 percent increase from 2018. More than 22,500 physicians and other health care professionals are registered to use state PDMPs.

• The Medical Association was one of the first states to offer an opioid prescribing education course in the country in 2009. The main course is offered three times each year and has reached more than 5,000 prescribers to date.

• Access to naloxone increasing. More than 1 million naloxone prescriptions were dispensed in 2019—nearly double the amount in 2018, and a 649 percent increase from 2017. In 2016 the Medical Association helped pass legislation in Alabama authorizing the State Health Officer to sign a standing order to allow Alabama’s pharmacists to dispense naloxone to people in a position to assist others at risk of an overdose as well as to an individual at risk of experiencing an opiate-related overdose.

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