Major Changes in Prescribing of Opioids, Stimulants, and Other Drugs: 2010 through 2025

Session Description: Prescribing patterns and overdose death trends related to prescription controlled substances are changing each year. As learned through the opioid epidemic, such changes can have significant impacts on national and state substance use disorders, overdoses, and deaths. While prescription opioids, including fentanyl, have seen a decline in both prescribing and overdose deaths for more than a decade, the rate of decrease has slowed during the past five years. While illicit fentanyl recently surged and has significantly contributed to the national rise in drug overdose deaths, the rate of prescribing licit fentanyl has decreased even more rapidly than other prescription opioids. These decreases are consistent with public policy initiatives taken in the 2010s decades. At the same time, buprenorphine prescribing has more than tripled since 2010 in its enhanced role as Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD). The use of prescription benzodiazepines and overdose deaths involving these drugs have followed the patterns of prescription opioid prescribing and deaths.On the other hand, areas with limited public policy attention are seeing increases in prescribing and overdose deaths, particularly involving stimulants and ketamine.