WCF Mutual Insurance Co. and Mitchell International Inc., published a study in this month’s Journal of Occupational and Environment Medicine which looks at the use of opioids by injured workers in Utah. The study shows that in Utah there has been a 50 percent decrease in opioids prescribed to injured workers over an 18-month study period.

The study is titled “Implementation of an Opioid Guideline Impacts on Opioid Prescriptions, Adverse Outcomes, and an Association with a State Opioid-Related Fatalities”.

The authors of the study looked at claims information from WCF between 2013 and 2015. WCF implemented a program in Utah based on an opioid guideline with the goal of increasing adherence to evidence-based recommendations regarding opioid prescriptions, and ultimately to decrease the adverse effects that may result from improper opioid usage. They found that the number of injured workers prescribed opioids dropped after the implementation of the 18-month program.

The number of acute claims with opioid prescriptions decreased by 50.2 percent, which represented more than 13,000 fewer opioid pills dispensed to injured workers. Opioid prescriptions decreased from 2,061 to 1,665 (from 11.8% of claims to 5.9% of claims). The number of post-intervention claims requiring a second opioid fill was 528, a 60.9 percent decrease from pre-intervention, which researchers suggest may indicate that shortened duration does not adversely affect recovery. The total number of prescriptions (including non-opioid prescriptions) fell by 30.8 across all claims.

Utah was ranked seventh in drug poisoning deaths between 2013 and 2015, with an average of 23 people dying from prescription drug overdoses a month. It has been in the top ten states for overdoses for the past 10 years but even so, almost a third of Utah adults had been prescribed an opioid in 2014.

Read more here.