Impact of COVID-19 related policy changes on filling of opioid and benzodiazepine medications.

Background: Healthcare access has changed drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Elective medical procedures, including routine office visits, were restricted raising concerns regarding opioid and benzodiazepine provider and prescription availability.

Objective: To examine how the cancelation of elective medical procedures due to COVID-19 impacted the dispensing of opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions in Texas.

Impact of COVID-19 Related Policy Changes on Buprenorphine Dispensing in Texas.

Objectives: To measure the change in the daily number of patients receiving buprenorphine and buprenorphine prescribers during the early phase of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in Texas.

Methods: Counts of the number of patients filling and number of providers prescribing buprenorphine were calculated for each weekday between November 4, 2019 and May 12, 2020. The change in daily patients and prescribers between March 2, 2020 and May 12, 2020, was modeled as a change in slope compared to the baseline period using autoregressive, interrupted time series regression.

Health care practitioner counseling encourages disposal of unused opioid medications.

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between health care practitioner counseling on medication disposal and disposal of unused opioid medications.

Design: A 41-item survey instrument was created and administered to a nationally representative panel of adult opioid users with chronic pain using a cross-sectional, internet survey design via Qualtrics®.

Participants: Four hundred adult opioid users with chronic pain were randomly selected from the Qualtrics® panel-base to participate.

Using the theory of planned behavior to investigate community pharmacists' beliefs regarding engaging patients about prescription drug misuse.

Introduction: Opioid misuse causes over 50,000 deaths in America each year. Prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) databases serve as a useful decision analysis tool in managing patients with known or potential opioid use disorder (OUD). To date, however, little research has sought to determine how pharmacists use PDMPs to engage patients with potential OUD.

Development of Prescription Drug Information Leaflets: Impact of Cognitive Effort and Patient Involvement on Prescription Medication Information Processing.

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop a one-page (1-page) prescription drug information leaflet (PILs) and assess their impact on the information processing variables, across 2 levels of patient involvement.

Methods: One-page PILs were developed using cognitive principles to lower mental effort and improve comprehension. An experimental, 3 × 2 repeated measures study was conducted to determine the impact of cognitive effort, manipulated using leaflet type on comprehension across 2 levels (high/low) of patient involvement.

Abuse of over-the-counter medicines: a pharmacist's perspective.

Self-care and self-medication practices are essential components of any health care systems. The use of over-the-counter (OTC) medications is a part of the self-medication process. The popularity of OTC medication use among patients may increase the abuse potential of OTC medications.

Role of Information Anxiety and Information Load on Processing of Prescription Drug Information Leaflets.

In this study, we evaluate the role of information anxiety and information load on the intention to read information from prescription drug information leaflets (PILs). These PILs were developed based on the principals of information load and consumer information processing. This was an experimental prospective repeated measures study conducted in the United States where 360 (62% response rate) university students (>18 years old) participated.