Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Spiller, HA
• Griffith, JRK

Titel

Who Are We Serving with Pill ID Requests?

Erscheinungsjahr

2008

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Taylor & Francis

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Background: Information calls and specifically pill identification (PID) have been increasing at poison centers. Methods: This was a retrospective review of information calls reported to the NPDS for 2002-2006. Results: The total number information calls increased by 34% to 1.5 million/yr, while calls related to human exposures increased 1%. The sub-category PID was exclusively responsible for the increase in information calls with an increase of >70%. PID requests from the public, police and HCF changed by +98%, +112% and -13%, respectively. PID requests originating from the public, police and HCF were: 78%, 12%, and 10%, respectively. Other information sub-category calls showed a decrease or no change and these included calls for poison information (-20%), medical information (-1%) and drug information (non-PID) (<1%). 25% of all calls to US poison centers are now to identify a pill unrelated to an exposure. 62% of all identified pills were drugs with abuse potential (DAP). Discussion: DAP are <4% of pharmaceutical sales, yet > 60% of all PID requests involved DAP. This strongly suggests PID is not a random event but strongly driven by interest in DAP. Resources to fund poison centers are limited. Increasing services must come with a dedicated source of increased funding and it is unlikely that there are significant new resources dedicated to fund PID of DAP. Not all poison centers identify pills or report PID requests. The actual number of PID requests, while large, may be under reported. Conclusion: PID are increasing dramatically and taxing already limited PC resources. Continuing to provide PID for the public may not be in the best interests of the US poison Center system.