title: Prescription drug abuse: a comparison of prescriber and pharmacist perspectives.
abstract: This study compared perceptions of prescribers and pharmacists (N = 89) regarding multiple aspects of prescription drug abuse. Questionnaires were developed to assess perceptions regarding the prevalence of prescription drug abuse, self-perceived communication competence, and additional communication and prescription drug abuse domains. Pharmacists perceived a larger percentage of patients (41%) to be abusing opioid pain relievers as compared with their prescriber colleagues (17%). Both prescribers and pharmacists indicated improvements in prescriber-pharmacist communication would serve to deter prescription drug abuse. Self-efficacy beliefs for detecting and discussing prescription drug abuse with patients were low for both cohorts. Implications and limitations are noted. Year of data collection: 2012 SETTING: Rural Appalachia Data Collection Instruments: Prescriber- and pharmacist-specific survey instruments Data Analysis Techniques: Independent samples t-test; Mann-Whitney U test.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Practice, Gatton College of Pharmacy, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee 37614, USA. hagemeier@etsu.edu
authors.forename: Nicholas E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Hagemeier
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Robert P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Pack
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000523:psychology; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000523:psychology; D010823:Physician Assistants / Q000523:psychology; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D055553:Prescription Drugs