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Abstract
Background: The total consumption model implies a close relationship between the population mean of a health variable and prevalence of individuals at high risk concerning this variable in a population. The model applies well to alcohol consumption and prevalence of heavy drinkers, but has so far not been tested for prescription drugs with abuse potential. Carisoprodol is such a drug.
Aim: To explore whether the total consumption model applies to the overall sales and prevalence of excessive use of the prescription drug carisoprodol.
Data and measures: Norwegian wholesale statistics for carisoprodol were compared to data from the Norwegian prescription database on individuals’ use of the drug in 2004. Three different indicators of excessive use of carisoprodol were applied. County was the unit of analysis.
Findings: Log transformed data of total annual amount of carisoprodol use showed a close to normal distribution. There was a close relationship between the sales figures and each of the three indicators of excessive use of carisoprodol.
Conclusions: The total consumption model fits well for the excessive use of carisoprodol. This may be an important contribution to our understanding of excessive prescription drug use and may also have consequences for the regulatory actions concerning carisoprodol.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.