Databases Containing Information Relevant to Opioid Prescribing, Use, Abuse, Overdose/Poisonings, and Fatalities

SAMHSA - OAS

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Office of Applied Studies (OAS) is a source of information on the prevalence and incidence of substance abuse and mental health problems in the U.S. and the characteristics of those who suffer from these problems. SAMHSA's OAS is also the national source of information on the location, organization, and capacity of providers which offer services to prevent and treat substance abuse and the cost, quality, and effectiveness of the services of these providers. For more information on the various surveys and reports see: http://www.samhsa.gov.

NSDUH
(NHSDA)

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) has been conducted since 1971 and serves as the primary source of information on the prevalence and incidence of illicit drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, as well as the non-medical use of licit drugs, in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged 12 or older in the U.S. Information about substance abuse and dependence, mental health problems, and receipt of substance abuse and mental health treatment also is included. Since 1999, about 70,000 interviews are conducted each year. Before 2002, the name of the survey was the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA).

DAWN

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) provides semiannual estimates of the number of drug-related visits to hospital emergency departments based on a nationally representative sample of short-stay general hospitals located throughout the coterminous United States. DAWN also collects information on drug-related deaths from selected medical examiner offices. Emergency room estimates are produced for 21 large metropolitan areas and for the nation, while drug-related death data are produced for more than 40 metropolitan areas.

DASIS

The Drug and Alcohol Services Information System (DASIS) is the primary source of national data on substance abuse treatment and has three components:

I-SATS

The Inventory of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (I-SATS) is a listing of all known public and private substance abuse treatment facilities in the United States and its territories. Before 2000, the I-SATS was known as the National Master Facility Inventory.

N-SSATS
(UFDS)

The National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) is an annual survey of all facilities in the I-SATS that collects information on location, characteristics, services offered and utilization. Information from the N-SSATS is used to compile and update the National Directory of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Treatment Programs and the on-line Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator. The N-SSATS includes a periodic survey of substance abuse treatment in adult and juvenile correctional facilities. Before 2000, the N-SSATS was known as the Uniform Facility Data Set (UFDS).

TEDS

The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) is a compilation of data on the demographic and substance abuse characteristics of admissions to substance abuse treatment. Information on treatment admissions is routinely collected by State administrative systems and then submitted to SAMHSA in a standard format.

DSRS

The Drug Services Research Survey ( DSRS) is a national survey which obtained information on drug treatment providers and patients in 1990. The survey consisted of several components, a facility-based telephone interview with a sample of 1,183 drug treatment providers followed by a patient record-based survey of 2,200 patients discharged from treatment in a sub-sample of the programs. Follow-up of the patients to assess post-treatment status was conducted in the Services Research Outcomes Study (SROS).

SROS

The Services Research Outcome Study (SROS) is a follow-on to the 1990 Drug Services Research Survey (DSRS). The SROS provided for a five-year post-discharge follow-up of a broadly representative sample of approximately 3,000 drug abuse patients treated during 1989 to 1990. The study ascertained their behavior up to five years after the 1989-1990 treatment episode, and analyzes treatment results in light of the type and cost of treatment services the patients received.

ADSS

The Alcohol and Drug Services Study (ADSS) is a nationally representative survey of substance abuse treatment facilities and patients. The data were collected to estimate the patient length of stay and the costs of treatment as well as to describe the post-treatment status of patients. ADSS builds upon the 1990 Drug Services Research Survey (DSRS) and the Services Research Outcome Study (SROS) with a more complete sampling frame, an enhanced sampling design, and more detailed measures of the level of treatment services provided, the costs of treatment, and patients in treatment.

DEA
ARCOS

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
The Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) is an automated, comprehensive drug reporting system that monitors the flow of controlled substances from their point of manufacture through commercial distribution channels to point of sale or distribution at the dispensing/retail level by hospitals, retail pharmacies, practitioners, mid-level practitioners, and teaching institutions. Included in the list of controlled substance transactions tracked by ARCOS are the following: All Schedules I and II materials (manufacturers and distributors); Schedule III narcotic materials (manufacturers and distributors); and selected Schedule III and IV psychotropic drugs (manufacturers only).
ARCOS accumulates these transactions which are then summarized into reports which give investigators in Federal and State government agencies information which can then be used to identify the diversion of controlled substances into illicit channels of distribution.
Available at: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/index.html.

NFLIS

The National Forensics Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) from the DEA systematically collects results from drug analyses conducted by State and local forensic laboratories, and reflects drug evidence seized by law enforcement agencies. Results in this report are presented for both drug items and drug cases.
Approximately 300 State and local forensic laboratories in the United States analyze nearly 2 million drug items each year. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has long recognized that these analyses represent valuable information. The current partnership includes 34 State lab systems and 49 local or municipal labs, a total of 179 individual labs.
See: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/nflis/overview.htm.

ONDCP

Office of National Drug Control Policy, The White House

National
Drug
Control
Strategy

An annual report to Congress compiles data from a variety of sources relating to drug misuse and abuse in the U.S., as well as Administration strategies and budgets to address the problem.
See http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/index.html.

DENS

The Drug Evaluation Network System (DENS) is an electronic information system to track national trends in substance abuse treatment sponsored by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). It is a collaborative effort between the Treatment Research Institute (TRI) at the University of Pennsylvania and the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. The goal of the project is to provide practical and current clinical and administrative information on patients entering into substance abuse treatment throughout the nation.
Through the RADARS System (see below), Purdue Pharma provided funding in 2002 to add questions to the DENS questionnaire about prescription drugs identified by individuals entering addiction treatment programs.
See http://www.densonline.org/ for more information.

FDA
MedWatch

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
MedWatch, the FDA's Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program, serves both health care professionals and the public. It provides clinical information about safety issues involving medical products, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, biologics, medical and radiation-emitting devices, and special nutritional products. MedWatch allows healthcare professionals and consumers to report serious problems that they suspect are associated with the drugs and medical devices they prescribe, dispense, or use.
See: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/index.html

NCHS - CDC

NAMCS

National Center for Health Statistics / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
See: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/ahcd/ahcd1.htm
The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is designed to meet the need for objective, reliable information about the use of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. Findings are based on a sample of visits to nonfederally employed office-based physicians who are primarily engaged in direct patient care. The survey was conducted annually from 1973 to 1981, in 1985, and annually since 1989.

NHAMCS

The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) collects data on the utilization and provision of ambulatory care services in hospital emergency and outpatient departments. Findings are based on a national sample of visits to the emergency departments and outpatient departments of noninstitutional general and short-stay hospitals, exclusive of Federal, military, and Veterans Administration hospitals, located in the 50 States and the District of Columbia. Annual data collection began in 1992.

CDC
WONDER

CDC's WONDER is an easy-to-use system that provides a single point of access to a wide variety of CDC reports, guidelines, and numeric public health data, including: mortality, hospital discharges, behavioral risk factors, and many other topics.
See: http://wonder.cdc.gov/

AAPCC
TESS

American Association of Poison Control Centers
Toxic Exposure Surveillance Systems (TESS) data are compiled by the AAPCC. From its inception in 1983, TESS has grown dramatically, with the cumulative database in 2001 containing 31.4 million human poison exposure cases, including about 2.3 million for 2001 alone reported by 64 participating poison centers covering 48 States and the District of Columbia.
See: http://www.aapcc.org/annual.htm

IMS

Operating in more than 100 countries, IMS Health, a leading provider of information to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, offers marketing data on prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products.
IMS tracks and measures prescriptions dispensed along with sales volumes, pricing and market share - by product, company, region and distribution channel. Customized measures of market performance include: Daily, weekly and monthly prescription tracking; key physician prescribing patterns.
Additional information is available at http://www.imshealth.com.

RADARS

Purdue Pharma established the Researched Abuse, Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS) System in 2002 to study the prevalence of abuse and diversion of controlled prescription medications. The system is designed to obtain quantitative and qualitative information on the relative rates of abuse, addiction, and diversion of commonly prescribed prescription pain medicines.
Initially, the RADARS System was to monitor six types of prescription opioid pain medications with recognized abuse potential: morphine, buprenorphine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxycodone. As experience with the system accumulates, other types of medications, such as benzodiazepines (alprazolam and diazepam), are to be added. This database is not open to the public.
See: http://www.purduepharma.com.

OTHER...
NVDRS

The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) is a State-based initiative, funded by the CDC, which tracks violent deaths resulting from the use of physical force, either intentional or unintentional: homicide, suicide, firearm accidents, legal interventions, terrorism, etc. Within that, there is a Medical Examiner/Coroner Death Investigation Data Set (MECDIDS) providing standard fields for data collection. Another component - BLURBS - is a coding scheme allowing searches for specific toxicology data.

NAME
PedTox
Registry

The National Association of Medical Examiners' (NAME) Pediatric Toxicology (PedTox) Registry represents jurisdictions from around the U.S. and contains detailed case description information beyond what can be found in death certificate data. Reporting is voluntary and toxicologic data are not standardized.

CPSC/NEISS

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) uses emergency department data for the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). The Commission also used NCHS (National Center for Health Statistics) data to estimate causes of death for specific product-related accidents. This includes drug-related accidents, and specific studies can be done on request to evaluate specific agents.

PMPs

Prescription Monitoring Programs (PMPs) have been implemented by a number of States to collect data for public health initiatives, law enforcement, and early intervention and prevention of problems related to diversion and abuse of prescription drugs. PMPs rely on pharmacies and other drug dispensers to send data electronically to central state-managed repositories.

NIJ/ADAM

The National Institute of Justice's (NIJ) Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program tracks trends in the prevalence and types of drug use among booked arrestees in urban areas. The data play an important role in assembling a national picture of drug abuse in the arrestee population and have been a central component in studying the links between drug use and criminal behavior. See: http://www.adam-nij.net/