Encouraging Judicious Prescribing of Opioids in Los Angeles County

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Substance-Related Disorders

In brief

In collaboration with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office and the State of California's controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), the investigators propose to review opioid poisonings over 12 months and send letters to prescribers in California when at least one of the provider's prescription(s) was filled by a patient who died of an opioid poisoning in Los Angeles County. The letters will be non-judgmental and factual, explaining that a patient of the provider who was being treated with prescription narcotics died of an opioid poisoning. The letters will also encourage judicious prescribing including use of the CURES system before prescribing. The investigators will evaluate physician prescribing practices over 24 months (12 months pre- and 12 months post-letter) using data from the CURES database. The investigators' hypothesis is that letters will make the risk of opioids more cognitively available and that physicians will respond by prescribing opioids more carefully, resulting in fewer deaths due to misuse and more frequent use of the CURES system.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03856593

Run by

University of Southern California

People needed

541

Starts

2019-04-05

Expected to finish

2021-08-08

Last updated by the study team

2023-03-28

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Prescribers in California for whom at least one of their prescription(s) was filled by a patient who died of an opioid poisoning in Los Angeles County

You may not qualify if…

• Prescriber is licensed outside the State of California and does not hold a California license, but the prescription was filled in California
• The prescriber does not have a CURES report on record
• The prescriber has issued only one opioid prescription in the last 12 months since the time of the deceased death (and the prescription was to the deceased)
• Prescriptions with unknown Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) number

Where it is running

• Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office — Los Angeles, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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