• Clin J Pain · Jul 2013

    Case Reports

    Pill counts and pill rental: unintended entrepreneurial opportunities.

    • Christopher M Viscomi, Melissa Covington, and Catherine Christenson.
    • Department of Anesthesiology, College of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, USA. christopher.viscomi@vtmednet.org
    • Clin J Pain. 2013 Jul 1;29(7):623-4.

    BackgroundPrescription opioid diversion and abuse are becoming increasingly prevalent in many regions of the world, particularly the United States. One method advocated to assess compliance with opioid prescriptions is occasional "pill counts." Shortly before a scheduled appointment, a patient is notified that they must bring in the unused portion of their opioid prescription. It has been assumed that if a patient has the correct number and strength of pills that should be present for that point in a prescription interval that they are unlikely to be selling or abusing their opioids.MethodsTwo cases are presented where patients describe short term rental of opioids from illicit opioid dealers in order to circumvent pill counts.ResultsPill renting appears to be an established method of circumventing pill counts.ConclusionsPill counts do not assure non-diversion of opioids and provide additional cash flow to illicit opioid dealers.

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