The number of opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States has quadrupled since 1999. For this reason, in October 2017 President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. Massachusetts is particularly affected by the opioid epidemic as evident in an opioid-related death rate that is double the national rate. Naloxone is a prescription medication that works antagonistically to bind opioid receptors and rapidly reverses and blocks the effects of opioids. This drug is widely used to revive patients who are experiencing an opioid overdose. Prior research on the topic of attitudes toward naloxone prescriptions and dispensing has focused primarily on three groups of people: patients, prescribers, and pharmacists. However, in recent years there has been an expansion of the role of the pharmacy technician in healthcare administration, such as in the administration of vaccines. Thus, there is a lack of research centered on the role of pharmacy technicians in the dispensing of naloxone.
The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of pharmacy technicians in the dispensing of naloxone across Massachusetts. This goal was accomplished by purposively sampling CVS pharmacies in 13 municipalities across the state, with 7 municipalities having an opioid-related death rate per 100,000 people greater than the state average and 6 municipalities having an opioid-related death rate per 100,000 people less than the state average. These municipalities were termed High-Risk Municipalities and Low-Risk Municipalities, respectively. Three CVS pharmacies were sampled within each municipality, yielding a total sample size of 39 CVS pharmacies with 21 from High-Risk Municipalities and 18 from Low-Risk Municipalities. Pharmacy technicians working in each pharmacy were administered a survey pertaining to their attitudes and perceptions on naloxone dispensing.
The results of this study demonstrated that there was a significant difference between technicians working in High-Risk Municipalities and Low-Risk Municipalities regarding the percentage of patients who they believed could benefit from naloxone. Specifically, 67% of participants in Low-Risk Municipalities indicated that less than 25% of patients could benefit from having a naloxone kit available whereas 67% of participants in High-Risk Municipalities indicated that greater than 50% of patients could benefit (Mann-Whitney U significance level = 0.001). This result is critical, especially considering the fact that there was no significant difference between both groups of technicians on their perceptions of patients who used illicit opioids or prescription opioids. In addition, unsolicited feedback from participants revealed several common themes among technicians working in both groups, including the belief that patients could benefit from a reduced cost of naloxone and that both technicians and patients may be unaware that naloxone can benefit individuals taking prescription opioids rather than just people who inject drugs.
Future studies could investigate whether participant characteristics, such as years of experience working in the pharmacy may have influenced the results. Also, future research could be directed toward determining if there might be a relationship between syringe sales and naloxone sales in High-Risk Municipalities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/31244 |
| Date | 12 July 2018 |
| Creators | Kurian, Shawn |
| Contributors | Spencer, Jean L., Green, Traci C. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds