• Meghan K Wally, Michael E Thompson, Susan Odum, Donna M Kazemi, Joseph R Hsu, Rachel B Seymour, and PRIMUM Group:.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute, Charlotte, NC 28207, United States.
• Pain Med. 2023 Aug 1; 24 (8): 926932926-932.

ObjectivesTo assess whether implementation of the Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention (STOP) Act was associated with an increase in the percentage of opioid prescriptions written for 7 days or fewer among patients with acute or postsurgical musculoskeletal conditions.DesignAn interrupted time-series study was conducted to determine the change in duration of opioid prescriptions associated with the STOP Act.SettingData were extracted from the electronic health record of a large health care system in North Carolina.SubjectsPatients presenting from 2016 to 2020 with an acute musculoskeletal injury and the clinicians treating them were included in an interrupted time-series study (n = 12 839).MethodsTrends were assessed over time, including the change in trend associated with implementation of the STOP Act, for the percentage of prescriptions written for ≤7 days.ResultsAmong patients with acute musculoskeletal injury, less than 30% of prescriptions were written for ≤7 days in January of 2016; by December of 2020, almost 90% of prescriptions were written for ≤7 days. Prescriptions written for ≤7 days increased 17.7% after the STOP Act was implemented (P < .001), after adjustment for the existing trend.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate significant potential for legislation to influence opioid prescribing behavior.© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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