As an epidemic of opiate addiction has spread across America, public health officials have cited improper disposal of prescription pain pills as a major contributing factor. A review conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University supports that belief. The review indicates that most opioids prescribed after surgery go unused, resulting in leftover pills that increase the risk they will be used inappropriately. In a review of six different studies involving 810 total patients, a team led by Dr. Mark Bicket, assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Hopkins’ School of Medicine, found that two out of three patients did not use their entire opioid prescription after surgery, and did not dispose of the pills afterward.
The study notes that dosage instructions provided with opioid prescriptions are often too vague – for example, suggesting one pill every four hours "as needed" for pain. Bicket said this causes a disparity between what people are prescribed and what they need. The unused pills increase the risk of abuse, he told The Baltimore Sun. “Many patients who use heroin transition from using opioids," Bicket said. In a review of half a dozen published studies in which patients self-reported use of opioids prescribed to them after surgery, John Hopkins researchers reported that a large majority of patients used only some or none of the pills prescribed, and more than 90 percent failed to dispose of the leftovers in recommended ways.
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