Pain Med Prescriptions Decrease

A West Virginia board report says state pharmacies dispensed 31 million fewer controlled substances last year, a trend the board’s acting chief says is due to heightened awareness about prescription medication overdose deaths. The Gazette-Mail reports the decline was the sharpest in a single year since the state started tracking powerful medications, down 11.7 percent from 2016 to 2017. That includes prescription painkillers, anti-anxiety medication and amphetamines. The most prescribed pain medication, hydrocodone, fell by 8.4 million tablets.