With prescription drug and opioid abuse reaching epidemic proportions in the United States, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) is making the crisis a focus of attention at its 2016 APhA Annual Meeting and Exposition in Baltimore, March 4 to March 7. This emphasis piggybacks on APhA’s ongoing commitment to engage the pharmacy community to help curb the epidemic. In October 2015, APhA was invited by the White House to participate in finding solutions to curb opioid abuse. As part of a national effort coordinated by the Obama Administration, APhA will launch a Resource Center in 2016 to educate the pharmacy profession about opioid use, misuse and abuse. To read more about the White House initiative, visit White House Announces Plan to Curb Prescription Drug Heroin Crisis.

 

"As the pharmacy community is well aware, prescription drug abuse and dependency have been on the rise in America for several years," said APhA Executive Vice President and CEO, Thomas E. Menighan, BSPharm, MBA, ScD (Hon), FAPhA. "This epidemic is a major issue for our nation due to the devastating impact it is has had on individuals, families and communities. We have made this a central theme for APhA2016. As we inform and educate pharmacy professionals, they will be able to help their communities."

 

APhA2016 will feature four sessions devoted to opioid and prescription medicine abuse. They include:

 

Point/Counterpoint: Opioids, Overdoses, and Pain Management, Saturday, March 5, 7:00am to 9:00am, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 314/315. This session will examine how pharmacists are positioned to help address the overdose epidemic through proper medication management, counseling patients and caregivers about risk reduction, and providing naloxone rescue kits to the community. Jeffrey Fudin, PharmD, DAAPM, FCCP, FASHP, clinical pharmacy specialist, Novapain Associates, Christopher Herndon, PharmD, BCPS, CPE, associate professor, Southern Illinois University, and Anthony Tommasello, medical science and treatment advisor, RBP Solutions will address clinical guidelines and evidence findings regarding chronic opioid therapy in chronic pain management, strategies that enhance safe use of chronic opioid therapy, and the role of naloxone in attenuating death and disability from the opioid overdose epidemic.

 

Colleagues in Research: Resisting Temptation: Can Abuse-Deterrent Formulations Curb Opioid Abuse?, Saturday, March 5, 3:00pm to 5:00pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 337/338. Jeffrey Fudin of Novapain Associates and Shellie Keast, PharmD, PhD, assistant professor, University of Oklahoma, College of Pharmacy, will explain how altering opioid formulations for abuse affects their kinetics and increases overdose risks, compare and contrast tamper-deterrent opioid formulations and other pharmacological approaches to deter abuse, and describe national and state efforts to curb abuse and misuse and issues surrounding the selection of tamper-resistant products for individual patients.

 

The Price of Pain Relief: Opioid-Induced Constipation, Sunday, March 6, 7:00am to 9:00am, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 318/319/320, will examine one of the costs of using opioids: constipation.

• Measuring Problematic Opioid Use with Simple Claims-Based Thresholds Poorly Captures Patients at Highest Risk of Overdose by Andrew Roberts, PHARMD, PHD, assistant professor of pharmacy sciences, Creighton University;
• Qualitative Assessment of Pharmacists’ Use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Data and Attitudes Toward Patient Engagement by Marc Fleming, PhD, MPH, RPh, assistant professor, University of Houston College of Pharmacy;
• Pharmacists’ Role in Harm Reduction: A Survey Study of Kentucky Pharmacists’ Willingness to Participate in Needle Exchange by Patricia Freeman, BSPharm, PhD, director, Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Practice, University Of Kentucky College Of Pharmacy;
• Pharmacist’s Role in Opioid Overdose: A Survey Study of Kentucky Pharmacists’ Willingness to Participate in Naloxone Dispensing by Patricia Freeman.