Researchers from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore found that nearly half of the patient population they surveyed received no information from their provider about how to safely store medications so they wouldn’t be accessible to teens or other adults looking to get high. Providers also didn’t give any guidance on how patients could safely dispose of their medications, with less than 7 percent of survey respondents saying they took advantage of take back programs that allow patients to turn in unused medications to pharmacies or drug agencies.
“These painkillers are much riskier than has been understood and the volume of prescribing and use has contributed to an opioid epidemic in this country,” study leader Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD, said in a statement. “It’s not clear why so many of our survey respondents reported having leftover medication, but it could be that they were prescribed more medication than they needed.”
Additionally, 60.6 percent of respondents said they had leftover pills from a prescription, and 61.3 percent said they planned to hold onto the medications for later use, contributing to an environment where addiction could take hold. Less than 10 percent of respondents kept their remaining pain meds locked up.
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