Sketchy 10% Of Doctors Are Writing More Than 50% Of Painkiller Prescriptions
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently looked at painkiller prescription patterns in eight states — California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, and West Virginia — and found that a small percentage of doctors are writing a significantly large percentage of these prescriptions.
Anywhere from 49.6% (Idaho) to 65.9% (Delaware) of opioid prescriptions in these states were written by only 10% of physicians. The top 20% of doctors account for more than two-thirds of painkiller prescriptions in all of these states and more than three-quarters of prescriptions in six of the eight states.
In Delaware, more than 25% of opioid prescriptions come from only 1% of the state’s physicians. In Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, and West Virginia, this elite class of sketchy doctor is responsible for at least 20% of painkiller prescriptions.
And these doctors are also writing prescriptions with substantially larger daily dosages. The more frequently a physician prescribed opioids, the higher the dosage tended to be. In general, the dosages prescribed by prescription-happy physicians were about double their more conservative colleagues.
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