Title

Opioid Prescribing and Potential Overdose Errors Among Children 0 to 36 Months Old

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2015

Abstract

Objective—To estimate the frequency of potential overdoses among outpatient opioid-containing prescriptions. Method—Using 11 years of outpatient Medicaid prescription data, we compared opioid dose dispensed (observed) versus expected dose to estimate overdose error frequencies. A potential overdose was defined as any preparation dispensed that was >110% of expected based on imputed, 97th percentile weights. Results—There were 59 536 study drug prescriptions to children 0 to 36 months old. Overall, 2.7% of the prescriptions contained potential overdose quantities, and the average excess amount dispensed was 48% above expected. Younger ages were associated with higher frequencies of potential overdose. For example, 8.9% of opioid prescriptions among infants 0 to 2 months contained potential overdose quantities, compared with 5.7% among infants 3 to 5 months old, 3.6% among infants 6 to 11 months old, and 2.3% among children >12 months (P < .0001). Conclusions—Opioid prescriptions for infants and children routinely contained potential overdose quantities.

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