Pharmacist Views Regarding the Prescription Opioid Epidemic

Abstract

Background Community pharmacists have significant opportunity to contribute to prevention and treatment of opioid use disorders, but barriers to implementation still exist. Understanding their viewpoints is critical to designing future interventions. Objective To qualitatively explore experiences and beliefs of community pharmacists regarding the misuse of prescription opioids in the United States. Methods The study was part of a larger project that utilized a survey questionnaire to evaluate the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and practices of community pharmacists in substance use disorders. The survey included an open-ended item on pharmacist views regarding the prescription opioid epidemic. The responses were used for inductive content analysis. Axial coding of themes was conducted to analyze underlying relationships: associations, consequences, intervening relationships, and action strategies regarding a central phenomenon. A model describing pharmacist experiences in the opioid epidemic was conceptualized. Results The open-ended question resulted in 50 (37.3%) usable responses. Final abstraction resulted in six themes including (1) overprescribing opioids: inappropriate prescribing as a contributor to the epidemic, (2) policy and practice recommendations: potential action strategies against the epidemic, (3) poor prescriber-pharmacist relationship: barrier to addressing the epidemic, (4) negative attitudes: intervening condition affecting roles of the pharmacist, (5) personal experience: facilitator to improve pharmacist roles and (6) decreased access to opioids: consequence of strict prescribing laws. Conclusion The study identified themes that described pharmacist views, attitudes, barriers, and experiences related to their perceived role in prevention and treatment of opioid use disorders. Future research should consider the implications of the barriers and facilitators identified.