Leftover Opioids? Mailed Kits Double Rate of Proper Disposal

By Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporter
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Could giving surgical procedure sufferers ready-to-use mailed disposal kits for unused opioids decrease the chance of abuse of the medicine?

Yes, claims a brand new research that discovered sufferers with unused opioid ache drugs are more likely to eliminate them correctly when given the kits.

There’s a danger that leftover opioid drugs could also be misused by the individual they had been prescribed to or by others. If they’re put within the trash, they may very well be discovered by youngsters or animals, or could hurt the surroundings. Flushing them down the bathroom additionally poses environmental dangers, the researchers defined.

There are secure disposal websites, comparable to sure pharmacies, however sufferers usually do not use them as a result of they might be out of the best way or it takes additional effort.

In this research, University of Pennsylvania researchers assessed whether or not mailed secure disposal kits would possibly make a distinction.

The research included 235 sufferers who had been prescribed opioid painkillers after orthopedic or urologic procedures. The typical process was adopted for about half of the sufferers, who had been texted directions to eliminate their unused drugs together with a hyperlink to places of native secure disposal websites.

The different sufferers obtained the identical textual content message however had been mailed disposal kits 4 to seven days after their procedures.

Leftover opioids had been disposed of correctly by 60% of those that obtained the disposal package, in contrast with 43% of the sufferers who did not obtain the kits, the investigators discovered.

Some research present that solely about 20% to 30% of U.S. sufferers correctly eliminate unused opioid drugs, so these findings counsel that mailed disposal kits might double or triple that fee, based on the authors of the research revealed on-line May 6 in JAMA Network Open.

The researchers famous that using mailed disposal kits by 125 sufferers within the research resulted within the secure disposal of 480 unused opioid drugs.

“I used to be happy to see that such a easy, ‘snail mail’ method might change conduct and promote self-reported disposal,” mentioned research lead creator Dr. Anish Agarwal, an assistant professor of emergency medication and chief wellness officer of the division of emergency medication at Penn Medicine.

“The opioid epidemic clearly continues to be entrance and heart for sufferers, and the considerations with opioid use and misuse have gotten an actual a part of the dialog between physicians and sufferers,” Agarwal added in a college information launch. “I feel sufferers are extra conscious of the dangers and penalties of utilizing opioids and storing them of their properties.”

More info

For extra on the secure disposal of medication, go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SOURCE: University of Pennsylvania, information launch, May 6, 2022