A Health Trends report out from Quest Diagnostics called “Drug Misuse in America 2019: Physician Perspectives and Diagnostics Insights on the Evolving Drug Crisis” says that many doctors are concerned about another drug crisis taking the place of the opioid epidemic, and it shows that many physicians are reluctant to take on new patients who are currently on opioids.

https://questdiagnostics.com/dms/Documents/drug-prescription-misuse/Health_Trends_Report_2019.pdf

The report looks at over 4.4 million clinical drug monitoring tests performed by Quest in all 50 states and DC from 2011 through 2018. The report also includes survey results from the Harris Poll of 500 primary care physicians.

2018 was the first year in over a decade that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a decline in the number of drug overdoses, including prescription overdoses. Still, this report shows that 62 percent of physicians fear that another prescription drug crisis will take the place of the opioid crisis. Quest Diagnostics test results show 51 percent of patient test results show signs of misuse, yet 72 percent of doctors trust their patients to take controlled medications as prescribed.

Four out of five doctors reported they were confident in their ability to recognize signs of misuse but just over half said they actually discussed potential misuse with most of their patients who were receiving controlled substances. Over half of physicians also underestimated drug mixing, believing that less than 20 percent of patients misused their controlled substances through drug mixing but test results showed 24 percent of patients were mixing prescription medications with other drugs, including illicit drugs and alcohol.

Also interesting is the finding that 81 percent of physicians said they are reluctant to take on new patients who are currently on opioids, and 83 percent of physicians say it is harder now to treat patients suffering from chronic pain because of the opioid epidemic. About 72 percent say that even though we may be seeing fewer opioid-related deaths, the trade-off is more patients who are not having their pain properly managed. Almost three-quarters of physicians worry chronic pain patients will turn to illicit drugs. Almost three-quarters wish they had more training on solutions like weaning patients off opioids, referring patients to addiction specialists, and on what to do if patients exhibit signs of addiction.

Read the study here.