Validation of a Community Pharmacy-Based Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Risk Screening Tool (PHARMSCREEN)

The goal of the study is to validate a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program-based opioid risk metric to discriminate between low, moderate, and high-risk opioid use disorder. The World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHO ASSIST) will be used as the gold standard instrument that defines patient risk levels. No intervention or hypothesis will be tested.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Opioid Abuse; Prescription Drug Abuse (Not Dependent)

Detailed Description

Fatal overdose deaths involving prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids has continued to increase across the US-continuing to increase in 35 states from 2013-2017. Given these persistent trends for adverse opioid-related outcomes in populations across the US, it is critical to work to identify those who are at risk, deliver appropriate care that will help prevent progression to more severe opioid-related outcomes, and provide referral and treatment resources to those who suffer from opioid use disorder. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the continuum of care to health care settings that previously may have been underutilized. One underutilized resource for addressing the current opioid epidemic is community pharmacies.The most important clinical tool pharmacists have available to identify possible misuse of opioid medications is prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP),which capture patient-level prescription dispensing information to inform monitoring, dispensing decisions, and possible intervention.These tools are available in all US states and have the potential to enable pharmacists to identify patients at-risk for opioid-related adverse events, such as addiction and overdose. In light of the continued escalation of the opioid epidemic nationally, combined with the promising opportunities afforded by the further inclusion of community pharmacy settings for engaging patients with opioid-related risk, it is important to evaluate whether current PDMP risk metrics correlate with clinically validated opioid risk tools and if clinically meaningful risk cutoffs exist for PDMP risk metrics.

This study will evaluate the concurrent validity of a PDMP-based opioid risk metric as a clinical measure of high risk opioid use and establish clinically useful risk-level thresholds relative to the widely validated gold standard of the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHO ASSIST). This study is a one group, cross-sectional, health assessment study. Participants who enroll in the study will complete on-line surveys at a single time point. Approximately 1,523 patients will be recruited from approximately 15 community community pharmacies. Trained pharmacy staff will inform potentially eligible participants, or individuals receiving at least one prescription(s) for potentially eligible participants, of the survey opportunity. Patients recruited will complete validated measures to assess opioid use and risk behaviors, substance use, and physical and mental health. A series of a priori analyses will be conducted to evaluate the validity of the PDMP-based opioid risk metric relative to the widely validated gold standard WHO ASSIST and to identify cutoff thresholds. Correlational, regression, and Cohen's Kappa statistical analyses will also be conducted to evaluate the relationship between the risk metric and the WHO ASSIST.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 1461

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45267
      • University of Cincinnati
  • Utah
    • Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 84108
      • University of Utah

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adults 18 years or older, prescribed opioid medications from one of 15 participating pharmacies.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. be dispensed ≥1 opioid medication (including tramadol) by a participating pharmacy;
2. be ≥18 years of age according to pharmacy data and self-report

Exclusion Criteria:

1. solely filling buprenorphine or buprenorphine combination products i.e., patients receiving OUD treatment with no other opioid medication use;
2. currently receiving treatment for cancer;
3. having previously completed the survey;
4. having current involvement with the criminal justice system that has, or could, lead to incarceration

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Drug use severity	Opioid use severity will be assessed using the WHO Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST)	36 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Utah
• Collaborators: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); University of Cincinnati; Purdue University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Charron E, Okifuji A, Bryan MA, Reese S, Brown JL, Ferguson A, Ghitza UE, Winhusen T, Cochran G. Pain Severity and Interference and Substance Use Among Community Pharmacy Patients Prescribed Opioids: A Secondary Analysis of the PHARMSCREEN Study. J Pain. 2022 Aug;23(8):1448-1459. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2022.03.238. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 4, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 30, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): May 31, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 30, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 2, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): May 3, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): June 13, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 12, 2023
• Last Verified: June 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Narcotic-Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Opioid-Related Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: CTN-0093; 5UG1DA049444 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No