Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Dec 2013
Changes in oxycodone and heroin exposures in the National Poison Data System after introduction of extended-release oxycodone with abuse-deterrent characteristics.
Abuse and misuse of prescription opioids are serious public health problems. Abuse-deterrent formulations are an intervention to balance risk mitigation with appropriate patient access. This study evaluated the effects of physicochemical barriers to crushing and dissolving on safety outcomes associated with extended-release oxycodone (ERO) tablets (OxyContin) using a national surveillance system of poison centers. Other single-entity (SE) oxycodone tablets and heroin were used as comparators and to assess substitution effects. ⋯ After ERO reformulation, calls to poison centers involving abuse, therapeutic errors affecting patients, and accidental exposures decreased for ERO, but not for comparator opioids. Abuse-deterrent formulations of opioid analgesics can reduce abuse, but switching to other accessible non abuse-deterrent opioids might occur.