Low-value Care

Opioid Prescribing to US Children and Young Adults in 2019

Abstract: Recent national data are lacking on the prevalence, safety, and prescribers of opioid prescriptions dispensed to children and young adults aged 0 to 21 years.

Publication: Pediatrics

Date Published: September 1, 2021

Author(s): Kao-Ping Chua, Chad M. Brummett, Rena M. Conti and Amy S. Bohnert

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To eliminate medication overload, serious cultural, educational, and policy changes are needed. This action plan offers recommendations for policymakers, health care institutions, clinicians, and patients across five key categories to reduce harm from multiple medication use. Suggested Citation: Eliminating medication overload: A national action plan. Working Group on Medication Overload. Brookline, MA: The Lown Institute, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46241/LI.YLBW4885

Pharmaceutical marketing is a significant factor in the growing public health crisis of medication overload, which puts millions of older adults at risk of preventable harm and premature death. This issue brief provides recommendations to reduce pharmaceutical industry influence by limiting pharma sales rep visits to clinicians and direct-to-consumer advertising.

This issue brief provides recommendations for clinical practice guidelines and electronic health records that would give clinicians the information they need to appropriately prescribe and deprescribe.