Drug Safety
-
: Risks of abuse, misuse and diversion of opioids are of concern. Obtaining opioid prescriptions from multiple prescribers, known as opioid shopping, is a way in which opioids may be abused and diverted. Previous studies relied on counting the number of prescribers or number of pharmacies a subject goes to in a year to define shopping behaviour, but did not distinguish successive prescribers from concomitant prescribers. ⋯ : Overlapping of prescriptions is not unique to opioids and therefore a criterion that incorporates number of pharmacies is needed to define shopping behaviour. Having two or more overlapping prescriptions written by different prescribers and filled at three or more pharmacies differentiates opioids from diuretics and likely constitutes shopping behaviour.