Concentration of Opioid-Related Industry Payments in Opioid Crisis Areas

• Published in: Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 187 - 189
• Main Authors: Lee, Austin J., Bandari, Jathin, Macleod, Liam C., Davies, Benjamin J., Jacobs, Bruce L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analgesics, Opioid - adverse effects; Analgesics, Opioid - economics; Concise Research Report; Drug abuse; Drug Industry - economics; Drug Industry - trends; Humans; Internal Medicine; Marketing; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mortality; Mortality - trends; Opioid Epidemic - mortality; Opioid Epidemic - trends; Opioids; Payments; Pharmaceutical industry; Physicians; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - economics; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - trends; United States - epidemiology; United States
• ISSN: 0884-8734; 1525-1497; 1525-1497
• DOI: 10.1007/s11606-018-4700-7

The misuse of opioids has led to dramatic increases in opioid-related mortality with opioid-related deaths increasing by 345% from 2001 to 2016 in the USA.1, 2 The marketing of opioids by the pharmaceutical industry to providers is well documented, with 1 in 12 US physicians receiving opioid-related industry payments.3 However, it is unclear how or even if pharmaceutical industry payments are related to opioid-related deaths, or if disparities exist in marketing efforts for at-risk populations. We examined if opioid-related industry payments to healthcare providers were associated with opioid-related deaths by US county in 2016.