Profile of medication identification requests managed by a U.S.-certified regional poison information center

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, the number of medication identification requests (MIR) to poison centers has increased dramatically. In 2003, there were 617,414 calls compared to 1,070,537 in 2007. The purpose of this investigation was to characterize the nature of the most common requests to a poison center for medication identification.

To profile the MIR to a poison information center, the data from 2003 to 2007 were analyzed to identify all requests for medication identification. The subset of MIR data was extracted and analyzed to profile the requests by the specific medication and category. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the data.

MIR were responsible for 193,006 calls: 24,643 in 2003, increasing to 55,473 in 2007. In 2003, there were inquiries about 1,261 different medications and in 2007 that increased to 3,165. During all but two of the five years, substances with known substance abuse potential accounted for 24 of the 25 most common MIR. Acetaminophen in combination with either hydrocodone or oxycodone dominated the requests. The most common identification request each year was for the brand-specific product Mallinckrodt 512 (acetaminophen/oxycodone).

The most frequent MIR involved medications with substance abuse potential, primarily opioids.

Poison center MIR data can provide important information to officials about substance abuse trends.