According to the United States Department of Justice, the most common prescription drugs that are misused fall into 1 of 3 categories: opioid pain relievers/narcotics; depressants; and stimulants. Experity EMR data encapsulating 17,526,083 prescriptions written at 3,037 urgent care centers from January 1 to August 20, 2024, shows the vast majority of urgent care centers do not prescribe these medications at all, and of those that do, these medications represent a very small percentage of total prescriptions written by those practices.
For example, accounting for all forms and dosages of the stimulant drugs amphetamine/dextroamphetamine (Adderall) and methylphenidate (Concerta, Ritalin), only 14.5% of urgent care centers provided even 1 prescription, meaning 85.5% did not prescribe these medications at all. And of those who did provide prescriptions, these drugs constituted only 0.5% of all prescriptions written, which is equal to approximately 5 in 1,000 prescriptions.
Download the article PDF: Few Misused Rx Drugs Prescribed in Urgent Care
