Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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The crisis of prescription opioid addiction in the USA is well-documented. Though opioid consumption per capita is lower in the UK, prescribing has increased dramatically in recent decades with an associated increase in deaths from prescription opioid overdose. At one Scottish Emergency Department high rates of prescribing of take-home co-codamol (30/500 mg) were observed, including for conditions where opioids are not recommended by national guidelines. An Implementation Science approach was adopted to investigate this. ⋯ The increasing incidence of prescription opioid addiction in the UK suggests the need for all clinicians who write opioid prescriptions to re-evaluate their practice. This study suggests that knowledge of addiction risk and prescribing guidelines is poor among Emergency Department prescribers. We show that a rapid and sustained reduction in prescribing of take-home opioids is feasible in a UK Emergency Department, and that this reduction was not associated with any increase in unplanned re-attendances or complaints related to analgesia.