Leftover Prescription Opioids After Minor Procedures

Leftover Prescription Opioids After Minor Procedures: An Unwitting Source for Accidental Overdose in Children Increasing rates of opioid misuse, adverse events, and deaths from opioids have paralleled prescription patterns,1 suggesting that physician efforts to alleviate pain have contributed to this public health crisis. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to prescription opioid overdose and misuse, given high rates of exposure in this group.2-4 Unintentional opioid deaths are estimated at 0.1 and 3.7 per 100 000 children and adolescents/young adults, respectively,1 and nearly all unintentional childhood exposures to opioids are to other family members’ medications.4 Half of adolescents who misuse prescription opioids acquire them from their own previous prescriptions, friends, or family members and 8% share their prescriptions with others.3,5 Given increasing public health concerns, the American College of Physicians recommends that an evidence-based defined maximum opioid dosage and duration of treatment be developed and followed,6 which, in part, could reduce the amounts of unused drugs available for adverse events and misuse. Therefore, we compared the opioid doses dispensed to children with the amount used following minor outpatient procedures to estimate the unused drugs remaining in children’s homes and inform future opioid prescribing.