Prescription Drug Abuse: Executive Summary of a Policy Position Paper From the American College of Physicians

The inappropriate use and abuse of prescription drugs isa serious public health problem. The Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention (CDC) has declared that the United States is in the midst of an epidemic of deaths from prescription drug overdose (1). The CDC reports that drug overdose, particularly due to the increase in nonmedical use of prescription pain-relief drugs, is the second leading cause of deaths from unintentional injuries in the United States, exceeded only by motor vehicle fatalities (2). A re-cent analysis of preliminary CDC data suggests that drug overdose may now be the leading cause of such deaths (3). Prescription drug abuse is found throughout all as-pects of our population. Physicians and other health pro-fessionals with prescribing privileges are entrusted with the authority to use medications in the treatment of their pa-tients and therefore have an important role to play in help-ing to ensure safe and effective use of this treatment option and the deterrence of its abuse. The American College of Physicians (ACP) developed this position paper to provide guidance to prescribers and policymakers regarding mea-sures to effectively address the problem of prescription drug abuse. This Executive Summary provides a synopsis of the full position paper (see the Appendix, available at www.annals.org).