Introduction: To use Colorado’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) to describe the recent opioid prescription history of patients discharged from our emergency department (ED) with a prescription for opioid pain medications.
Conclusion: Substantial variability exists in the opioid prescription histories of ED patients, but a majority received zero or one prescription in the preceding six months. The top decile of patients averaged more than two prescriptions per month over the six months prior to ED visit, written by more than 6 different prescribers. There was a trend toward these patients being older, Caucasian and female.