Prescription medicine misuse can happen with drugs that are available on prescription only and over-the-counter medications. This misuse can happen in the following ways: Using medication in more dosage and frequency than prescribed Changing the route of administration Using medicines with other recreational drugs or novel psychoactive substances (NPS) Using prescription drugs from illicit markets Prescription medication misuse is emerging to be a public health concern. The medications can be made available from varied sources like street-level drug dealers, friends, doctor shopping, and prescription forgery.
In a survey to ascertain benzodiazepine dependence in Singapore, conducted in 2003-2005 on 100 patients, it was reported that 69% of patients used midazolam. This drug abuse was attributed to both doctor-shopping behavior and doctors' prescribing practices. Similarly, a survey…
