US Doctors are increasingly using prescription drug monitoring programs — databases that track patients’ drug history — in an effort to cut down on inappropriate prescriptions.

By the numbers:

• This rise in monitoring corresponded with a 9% drop in opioid prescriptions between 2016 and 2017, according to new data from the American Medical Association.
• The number of opioid prescriptions decreased by 22% between 2013 and 2017.
• Prescriptions for naloxone, which is used for opioid overdose reversal, more than doubled in 2017 and are still on the rise in 2018.
• Over the past year, there’s been a 42% increase in the number of providers certified to use buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorders.

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