Diversion and Illicit Sale of Extended Release Tapentadol in the United States

Abstract Objective.  Prescription opioid analgesics are commonly prescribed for moderate to severe pain. An unintended consequence of prescribing opioid analgesics is the abuse and diversion of these medications. Tapentadol ER is a recently approved centrally acting analgesic with synergistic mechan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) Mass.), 2016-08, Vol.17 (8), p.1490-1496
Main Authors: Dart, Richard C., Surratt, Hilary L., Le Lait, Marie-Claire, Stivers, Yami, Bebarta, Vikhyat S., Freifeld, Clark C., Brownstein, John S., Burke, John J., Kurtz, Steven P., Dasgupta, Nabarun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictions
Analgesics
Analgesics, Opioid
Delayed-Action Preparations
Drug diversion
Humans
Narcotics
Norepinephrine
Opioid receptors
OPIOIDS, SUBSTANCE ABUSE & ADDICTIONS SECTION
Pain
Phenols
Prescription Drug Diversion - statistics & numerical data
Street Drugs
Tablets
United States
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Summary:Abstract Objective.  Prescription opioid analgesics are commonly prescribed for moderate to severe pain. An unintended consequence of prescribing opioid analgesics is the abuse and diversion of these medications. Tapentadol ER is a recently approved centrally acting analgesic with synergistic mechanisms of action: μ-opioid receptor agonism and inhibition of norepinephrine reuptake. We assessed the amount of diversion and related cost of obtaining tapentadol IR (Nucynta®) and tapentadol ER (Nucynta ER®) as well as other Schedule II opioid medications in street transactions in the United States using the Researched Abuse, Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS®) System. Methods.  The Drug Diversion Program measures the number of cases opened by 260 drug diversion investigators in 49 states. StreetRxTM uses a crowd-sourcing Website to collect the prices paid for licit or illicit drugs. Results.  The population-based rates of diversion were 0.003 (tapentadol IR), 0.001 (tapentadol ER), and 1.495 (other Schedule II opioid tablets) reports per 100,000 population. The tapentadol ER rate was lower than the other Schedule II opioid tablets (P
ISSN:1526-2375
1526-4637
DOI:10.1093/pm/pnv032