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Feedback reduces opioid prescriptions Most people addicted to opioids began taking them because they were legally prescribed. Little attention has been paid to changing physicians' prescribing behavior. Using a randomized controlled trial format, Doctor et al. monitored the effect of notifying physicians who had a patient die of opioid overdose within 12 months of a prescription. The physicians received an injunction to prescribe safely from their county's medical examiner. This intervention led to reductions in high-intensity prescribing, reductions in the likelihood that an opioid-naïve patient received a prescription, and a reduction in overall cumulative opioid intake. Science , this issue p. 588
Doctor et al. (Fri,) studied this question.