Objective To assess the appropriateness of outpatient antibiotic prescribing for privately insured children and non-elderly adults in the US using a comprehensive classification scheme of diagnosis codes in ICD-10-CM (international classification of diseases-clinical modification, 10th revision), which replaced ICD-9-CM in the US on 1 October 2015. Design Cross sectional study. Setting MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database, 2016. Participants 19.2 million enrollees aged 0-64 years. Main outcome measures A classification scheme was developed that determined whether each of the 91 738 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes “always,” “sometimes,” or “never” justified antibiotics. For each antibiotic prescription fill, this scheme was used to classify all diagnosis codes in claims during a look back period that began three days before antibiotic prescription fills and ended on the day fills occurred. The main outcome was the proportion of fills in each of four mutually exclusive categories: “appropriate” (associated with at least one “always” code during the look back period, “potentially appropriate” (associated with at least one “sometimes” but no “always” codes), “inappropriate” (associated only with “never” codes), and “not associated with a recent diagnosis code” (no codes during the look back period). Results The cohort (n=19 203 264) comprised 14 571 944 (75.9%) adult and 9 935 791 (51.7%) female enrollees. Among 15 455 834 outpatient antibiotic prescription fills by the cohort, the most common antibiotics were azithromycin (2 931 242, 19.0%), amoxicillin (2 818 939, 18.2%), and amoxicillin-clavulanate (1 784 921, 11.6%). Among these 15 455 834 fills, 1 973 873 (12.8%) were appropriate, 5 487 003 (35.5%) were potentially appropriate, 3 592 183 (23.2%) were inappropriate, and 4 402 775 (28.5%) were not associated with a recent diagnosis code. Among the 3 592 183 inappropriate fills, 2 541 125 (70.7%) were written in office based settings, 222 804 (6.2%) in urgent care centers, and 168 396 (4.7%) in emergency departments. In 2016, 2 697 918 (14.1%) of the 19 203 264 enrollees filled at least one inappropriate antibiotic prescription, including 490 475 out of 4 631 320 children (10.6%) and 2 207 173 out of 14 571 944 adults (15.2%). Conclusions Among all outpatient antibiotic prescription fills by 19 203 264 privately insured US children and non-elderly adults in 2016, 23.2% were inappropriate, 35.5% were potentially appropriate, and 28.5% were not associated with a recent diagnosis code. Approximately 1 in 7 enrollees filled at least one inappropriate antibiotic prescription in 2016. The classification scheme could facilitate future efforts to comprehensively measure outpatient antibiotic appropriateness in the US, and it could be adapted for use in other countries that use ICD-10 codes.

Opioids are frequently prescribed to adolescents and young adults.¹ In a national study² of claims from privately insured US adolescents and young adults, 12.6% of patients were prescribed opioids during 2015. Opioid prescribing to adolescents and young adults is associated with an increased risk of misuse, diversion to friends and family members, and long-term opioid use.^2-8 In addition, this prescribing is associated with an increased risk of overdose.⁹ In 2016, almost 30% of the 2985 opioid-related overdose deaths among US adolescents and young adults involved prescription opioids.^10,11 The burden of these deaths and the frequency of opioid prescribing highlight the importance of mitigating overdose risk when prescribing opioids to adolescents and young adults.

BACKGROUND: Recent national data are lacking on the prevalence, safety, and prescribers of opioid prescriptions dispensed to children and young adults aged 0 to 21 years. METHODS: We identified opioid prescriptions dispensed to children and young adults in 2019 in the IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database, which captures 92% of US pharmacies. We calculated the proportion of all US children and young adults with ≥1 dispensed opioid prescription in 2019. We calculated performance on 6 metrics of high-risk prescribing and the proportion of prescriptions written by each specialty. Of all prescriptions and those classified as high risk by ≥1 metric, we calculated the proportion written by high-volume prescribers with prescription counts at the ≥95th percentile. RESULTS: Analyses included 4 027 701 prescriptions. In 2019, 3.5% of US children and young adults had ≥1 dispensed opioid prescription. Of prescriptions for opioid-naive patients, 41.8% and 3.8% exceeded a 3-day and 7-day supply, respectively. Of prescriptions for young children, 8.4% and 7.7% were for codeine and tramadol. Of prescriptions for adolescents and young adults, 11.5% had daily dosages of ≥50 morphine milligram equivalents; 4.6% had benzodiazepine overlap. Overall, 45.6% of prescriptions were high risk by ≥1 metric. Dentists and surgeons wrote 61.4% of prescriptions. High-volume prescribers wrote 53.3% of prescriptions and 53.1% of high-risk prescriptions. CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of pediatric opioid prescriptions are high risk. To reduce high-risk prescribing, initiatives targeting high-volume prescribers may be warranted. However, broad-based initiatives are also needed to address the large share of high-risk prescribing attributable to other prescribers.

This Viewpoint reviews potential adverse consequences of US state and insurer policy initiatives to limit opioid prescription duration for patients with acute p

Video Abstract Video Abstract Mental health worsened in adolescents and young adults after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in March 2020, but whether antidepressant dispensing to this population changed is unknown. We identified antidepressant prescriptions dispensed to US individuals aged 12 to 25 years from 2016 to 2022 using the IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database, an all-payer national database. The outcome was the monthly antidepressant dispensing rate, defined as the monthly number of individuals with ≥1 dispensed antidepressant prescription per 100 000 people. We fitted linear segmented regression models assessing for level or slope changes during March 2020 and conducted subgroup analyses by sex and age group. Between January 2016 and December 2022, the monthly antidepressant dispensing rate increased 66.3%, from 2575.9 to 4284.8. Before March 2020, this rate increased by 17.0 per month (95% confidence interval: 15.2 to 18.8). The COVID-19 outbreak was not associated with a level change but was associated with a slope increase of 10.8 per month (95% confidence interval: 4.9 to 16.7). The monthly antidepressant dispensing rate increased 63.5% faster from March 2020 onwards compared with beforehand. In subgroup analyses, this rate increased 129.6% and 56.5% faster from March 2020 onwards compared with beforehand among females aged 12 to 17 years and 18 to 25 years, respectively. In contrast, the outbreak was associated with a level decrease among males aged 12 to 17 years and was not associated with a level or slope change among males aged 18 to 25 years. Antidepressant dispensing to adolescents and young adults was rising before the COVID-19 outbreak and rose 63.5% faster afterward. This change was driven by increased antidepressant dispensing to females and occurred despite decreased dispensing to male adolescents.