Maine leads in prescription rate for oft-abused painkillers
A new federal report said Maine’s rate of writing prescriptions for a commonly abused kind of painkiller was the highest in the nation in 2012, but state officials said they have since lowered the number of residents in treatment for painkiller abuse.
The Bangor Daily News reported that health care providers wrote 21.8 long-term opiate prescriptions for every 100 Maine residents that year, according to the report of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That figure placed Maine at the top in the country, just above Delaware’s rate of 21.7 per 100 residents.
Dr. Kevin Flanigan, the MaineCare program’s medical director, told the newspaper that new policies adopted in early 2013 have contributed to a decrease in use of opiate prescriptions and encouraged patients to seek alternative therapies and limited dosing.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments