Developing a framework of care for opioid medication misuse in community pharmacy

Prescription opioid misuse is a major public health concern in the US. Few resources exist to support community pharmacists engaging patients who misuse or are at risk for misuse.

This report describes the results of the execution of the ADAPT-ITT model (a model for modifying evidence-based behavioral interventions to new populations and service settings) to guide the development of a behavioral health framework for opioid medication misuse in the community pharmacy setting.

Pharmacy, addiction, intervention, and treatment experts were convened to attend a one-day meeting to review the empirical knowledgebase and discuss adapting the screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) protocol for addressing opioid medication misuse in community pharmacy. Qualitative data gathered from the meeting were analyzed by 2 independent coders in a 2-cycle process using objective coding schemes. Percentage of agreement and Cohen's Kappa were calculated to assess coder agreement.

First-cycle coding identified 4 distinct themes, with coder percentage of agreement ranging from 93.5 to 99.6% and with Kappa values between 0.81 and 0.93. Second-cycle coding identified 10 sub-themes, with coder percentage of agreement ranging from 83 to 99.8% and with Kappa values between 0.58 and 0.93. Identified themes and sub-themes encompassed patient identification, intervention, prevention, and referral to treatment.

Focus of screening efforts in the emerging model should capitalize on pharmacists' knowledge of medication management. Screening likewise should be multidimensional in order to facilitate patient-centered interventions that activate additional disciplines able to interface with patients at risk or involved in medication misuse.