To curb “doctor shopping,” the databases generally make information on controlled-substance purchases recorded by pharmacists and other drug dispensers quickly available to prescribers. The drugs include oxycodone, hydrocodone, Xanax and others, though the list varies from state to state. Prescribers — mainly physicians — can see which drugs their patients are obtaining and whether they are going to other prescribers to do so. Doctor shopping, defined as a person obtaining controlled-substance prescriptions from five prescribers in one month, fell 76.4 percent in a year. Opioid prescribing dropped by 8.7 percent, and prescriptions for buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid dependence, rose 12.8 percent.

Source: Washington Post January 14, 2017 20:33 UTC