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Feb 2023
By the Numbers: Texas PMP in 2022
It has been nearly three years since the Texas Legislature mandated that prescribers and pharmacists check the Texas Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) before prescribing and dispensing controlled substances. Since March 1, 2020, there has been a steady decrease in the number of controlled substances dispensed and an increase in user registrations and searches of the PMP database.
Recent dispensation data from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy shows there was a 3.6 percent decrease in total controlled substance dispensations, from 36.3 million in fiscal year 2020 to just over 35 million in fiscal year 2022. During the same period, user searches in the Texas PMP database also increased by nearly 57 percent. In FY 2020, about 155 million PMP searcher occurred and in FY 2022 that number jumped to more than 243 million.
The importance of increasing the effective use of the PMP is greater than ever as overdose deaths continue to be on the rise nationwide. In Texas, the rate of overdose deaths was projected to increase from a predicted 4,752 in May 2021 to 5,107 in May 2022, a 7.5 percent increase (Ahmad, F.B., et al., 2022). The national trend in overdose deaths is similar to Texas, with overdose deaths involving opioids up from 70,029 in 2020 to 80,816 in 2021 (Centers for Disease Control, 2022). While the majority of those deaths did occur due to synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, more than 15 percent were attributed to prescription opioids.
Checking the PMP for every patient every time helps prevent opioid misuse and overdose in your community. Please visit our website at txpmp.org for more data reports and resources for effectively communicating with patients about the risks associated with opioid misuse.
Sources:
Ahmad, F.B., Cisewski, J.A., Rossen, L.M., and Sutton, P. (2022). Provisional drug overdose death counts. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm.
Centers for Disease Control. (2022). U.S. Overdose Deaths In 2021 Increased Half as Much as in 2020 – But Are Still Up 15%. National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2022/202205.htm