Wisconsin medical providers are prescribing opioids to fewer patients amid epidemic

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Medical providers in Wisconsin have been prescribing opioids to fewer patients, according to new state data.

The dispensing of opioids and all prescription drugs continued a downward trend in 2019 amid the nationwide addiction epidemic, a report from the Wisconsin Prescription Drug Monitoring Program found.

From 2015 to 2019, providers gave out 23.6% fewer prescriptions to drugs considered legal controlled substances. Those numbers have steadily decreased each year since their peak in 2015.

The biggest drop was a few years ago when Wisconsin providers handed out nearly a million fewer prescriptions in 2017 than in 2016.

Researchers tracked three types of prescription drugs: opioids, with brand names such as Vicodin and OxyContin; benzodiazepines, such as Xanax and Valium; and stimulants, such as Adderall.

The only category to see a boost? Stimulants. Within 2019, the number of stimulant prescriptions fluctuated quarter to quarter. But overall, providers handed out 2.4% more in 2019 than the year before, and 7.5% more than in 2015.

Opioids have seen a substantial dip in four years: researchers cataloged 33.8% fewer prescriptions last year than in 2015.

As with overall prescriptions, opioid doses have consistently declined from more than 5 million prescriptions statewide in 2015 to about 3.5 million last year.

Benzodiazepines, sedatives that are often used to treat anxiety, are also highly addictive. Wisconsin doctors have been handing out 24% fewer prescriptions for the drugs in 2019 compared with 2015.

But drug addiction remains a pressing issue in Wisconsin. Last year Milwaukee County was set to break its record for overdose deaths, with the medical examiner’s office expecting to reach 425 once pending investigations were complete. It surpassed the 2017 record of 401 deaths.

Many of the deaths involve a combination of fentanyl and cocaine found in victims who either knowingly or unknowingly ingested both drugs, according to Karen Domagalski, operations manager at the office.

The state’s report also documented the top drugs doctors dispensed. The No. 1 drug on the list, hydrocodone, with more than 1 million prescriptions, was down 9% from 2018. Across the list, the drugs with the biggest drops were all opioids.

And the No. 2 drug, a stimulant known by its brand name Adderall, is up slightly. There were 1.1% more prescriptions of the drug used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in 2019 than the previous year.

The drug that saw the biggest bump? Naloxone, known by its brand name Narcan. It combats opioid overdoses, and prescriptions of the life-saving drug were up nearly 23% from last year.

Milwaukee officials announced last week that the city is joining a sprawling federal lawsuit against opioid drug manufacturers and distributors that are accused of fueling the opioid epidemic.

The city asserts that manufacturers of the painkillers "drastically" expanded the market for the drugs and their own market share using a "massive false marketing campaign" and that manufacturers and distributors "reaped enormous financial rewards by refusing to monitor and restrict the improper distribution of those drugs."

As part of that lawsuit, Drug Enforcement Administration data were released showing that across the U.S., drug companies distributed 76 billion prescription oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills between 2006 and 2012.

More than 310 million of those pills were supplied to Milwaukee County pharmacies in that time, enough for 47 pills per person, every year, according to DEA data analyzed by the Washington Post.

Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.