The economic burden of opioid prescription by dentists: A 12-month survey of consumer expenditure in Brazil

Tulio Eduardo Nogueira; Patrícia Azevedo Lino; Maria Auxiliadora Parreiras Martins; Maria Elisa Souza Silva; Claudio Rodrigues Leles; Mauro Henrique Nogueira Guimarães Abreu

doi:10.1111/jphd.12231

The economic burden of opioid prescription by dentists: A 12-month survey of consumer expenditure in Brazil

J Public Health Dent. 2017 Sep;77(4):285-289. doi: 10.1111/jphd.12231. Epub 2017 Jul 3.

Authors

Tulio Eduardo Nogueira¹, Patrícia Azevedo Lino², Maria Auxiliadora Parreiras Martins³, Maria Elisa Souza Silva⁴, Claudio Rodrigues Leles¹, Mauro Henrique Nogueira Guimarães Abreu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.
² Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
³ Department of Pharmaceutical Produts, School of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Operative Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

PMID: 28670678
DOI: 10.1111/jphd.12231

Abstract

Objectives: To describe consumer expenditure on opioids prescribed by dentists in Brazil during a 12-month period.

Methods: We surveyed individual dispensed prescriptions of opioids in private pharmacies from October 2012 to September 2013. A descriptive analysis of costs included a calculation of the overall and mean maximum price to consumers. Monetary costs were converted from local currency units (Brazilian Real - BRL) to international dollars using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchanging rates.

Results: 129,708 prescriptions were retrieved from the database. The overall expenditure on opioids was R$4,316,383.46 BRL or $2,721,315.82 (PPP). The mean cost of an individual prescription was R$33.27 BRL ($20.98 PPP), ranging from 14.19 to 3,255.60 BRL. Codeine was frequently prescribed (87.2 percent).

Conclusions: The expenditure on opioids is a significant cost to Brazilian patients, especially given that the Brazilian Public Health System should dispense these drugs free of charge. Codeine was the most prescribed opioid.

Keywords: opioids; prescription drugs; public health dentistry; public health surveillance.

MeSH terms

Analgesics, Opioid / economics*
Analgesics, Opioid / therapeutic use
Brazil
Drug Prescriptions / economics*
Health Expenditures
Humans
Practice Patterns, Dentists' / economics*

Substances

Analgesics, Opioid