Physicians urged to detect prescription drug abuse

Nearly half of physicians surveyed said patients pressure them to prescribe controlled drugs.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Aug. 8, 2005.

Medical leaders say physicians and medical students need more training to spot and treat prescription drug abuse. With the proper training, they say, doctors would be better suited to help reduce the high number of abusers of controlled prescription drugs.

They are urging greater education in response to a new national report that found 15.1 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs in 2003 -- nearly double the 7.8 million in 1992. More people abused these drugs than the combined number of abusers for cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin, according to the report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University in New York.

The report indicates that many physicians are not trained to recognize and prevent patient abuse of controlled prescription drugs. Of 979 physicians surveyed in 2004, only 19% said they had received any medical school training in identifying prescription drug diversion. Just four in 10 doctors said they had been trained in medical school to identify prescription drug abuse and addiction.

"[Doctors] acknowledge that more training would be useful to them in these areas," said Susan Foster, who directed research for the report and is CASA's vice president and director for policy research and analysis.

CASA, a national organization that studies substance abuse, did a three-year study of prescription opioids, central nervous system depressants and CNS stimulants. From 1992 to 2003, written prescriptions for controlled drugs increased more than 150%, about 12 times the rate increase in population. The number of abusers ages 12 to 17 jumped 212%.