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Number of opioid prescriptions remains unchanged, Mayo Clinic research finds

1,164 views · Published 2 August 2018 · 1:27 · Indexed 22 September 2026

Channel: Mayo Clinic · 2018 · Science & Technology

Despite increased attention to opioid abuse, prescriptions have remained relatively unchanged for many U.S. patients, research led by Mayo Clinic finds. The research, published in The BMJ, shows that opioid prescription rates have remained flat for commercially insured patients over the past decade. Rates for some Medicare patients are leveling but remain above where they were 10 years ago.

“Our data suggest not much has changed in prescription opioid use since about five years ago,” says Molly Jeffery, Ph.D., lead author, who is the scientific director of the Mayo Clinic Division of Emergency Medicine Research.

A cross-specialty team of physicians and researchers from Mayo Clinic, Yale University, The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dartmouth College collaborated to study 48 million U.S. patients who had insurance coverage between 2007 and 2016. Using deidentified insurance claims from the OptumLabs Data Warehouse, the team compared opioid prescriptions among commercially insured patients; Medicare Advantage recipients 65 and older; and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries younger than 65, who generally qualify because of long-term disability. They found that over the course of one year, 14 percent of commercially insured patients, 26 percent of Medicare Advantage patients 65 and older, and 52 percent of disabled Medicare Advantage patients received an opioid prescription.

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Number of opioid prescriptions remains unchanged, Mayo Clinic research finds

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