Text Intervention to Facilitate Secure Storage and Disposal of Prescription Opioids

NCT05503186 | Completed Results

• 2 other identifiers: IRB00102139UMCIRB 21-001307
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 479
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The proposed study aims to develop and implement a text message intervention that will instruct and motivate individuals to securely store opioid medications during treatment and subsequently dispose of unused medications following treatment. It is relevant to public health as it is expected to meet the critical need of reducing the diversion of prescription opioids for nonmedical use. The proposed research is relevant to National Institute on Drug Abuse's priorities to develop and implement theoretically based, prevention interventions that can be scalable in healthcare settings to elicit population-level impacts to address the opioid crisis.

Conditions

Opioid Misuse

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Percentage of Participants Who Securely Stored Their Opioid Medication During Treatment

  Investigators will assess the differences in the percentage of participants who securely stored their opioid medication during treatment using a dichotomous, close-ended question on a self-administered questionnaire.

  45 days following enrollment

• Percentage of Participants Who Disposed of Their Unused Opioid Medication

  Investigators will assess the differences in the percentage of participants who disposed of their unused opioid medication following completion of treatment using a dichotomous, close-ended question on a self-administered questionnaire.

  45 days following enrollment

Study Arms (2)

Text Message Intervention Study Condition

EXPERIMENTAL

The intervention is a text message intervention. Text messages will provide guidance on secure storage and disposal of prescription opioids to participants who have been dispensed a prescription opioid. Participants in the intervention study condition will receive a series of text messages that aim to facilitate secure storage and disposal of unused opioid prescriptions.

Other: Text Message; Other: Standard of Care

Control Study Condition

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants assigned to the control study condition will not receive the text message intervention. Participants assigned to the control study condition will receive a standard of care of treatment which is whatever guidance that is provided to them by their physician and/or pharmacist.

Other: Standard of Care

Interventions

Text Message OTHER

The intervention consists of a series of text messages aimed to facilitate secure storage and disposal of unused opioid medications.

Text Message Intervention Study Condition

Standard of Care OTHER

Information provided by the physician and/or pharmacist.

Control Study Condition; Text Message Intervention Study Condition

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• years or older
• able to read and speak English
• owning a cell phone with the capability of receiving short message service (SMS) text messages
• receiving an opioid prescription within the past 14 days

You may not qualify if:

• years or younger
• not able to read and speak English
• does not own a cell phone with the capability of receiving SMS text messages
• has not received an opioid prescription within the past 14 days

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Wake Forest University Health Sciences: lead
• University of Kentucky: collaborator
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: collaborator
• East Carolina University: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Egan KL, Cox MJ, Helme DW, Jackson JT, Richman AR. Text Message Intervention to Facilitate Secure Storage and Disposal of Prescription Opioids to Prevent Diversion and Misuse: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2025 Apr 17;14:e60332. doi: 10.2196/60332.

  PMID: 40245386 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Opioid-Related Disorders

Interventions

Standard of Care

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Narcotic-Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Mental Disorders

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Quality Indicators, Health Care; Quality of Health Care; Health Services Administration; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation

Limitations and Caveats

Limitations include eligibility within 14 days of opioid prescription, restricting findings to short-term therapy. Messaging exposure outside the intervention was uncontrolled. Message delivery was confirmed, but reading rates were unknown. Self-reported surveys may have social desirability bias. Election-related text volume could reduce engagement.

Results Point of Contact

• Title: Dr. Kathleen Egan
• Organization: Wake Forest University School of Medicine

kathleen.egan@wfusm.edu

704-355-2000

Study Officials

• Kathleen Egan, PhD, MS

  Wake Forest University Health Sciences

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Publication Agreements

• PI is Sponsor Employee: No
• Restrictive Agreement: No

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 12, 2022
• First Posted: August 16, 2022
• Study Start: June 14, 2024
• Primary Completion: December 9, 2024
• Study Completion: December 9, 2024
• Last Updated: April 22, 2026
• Results First Posted: March 27, 2026

Record last verified: 2024-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Time Frame: After all data have been collected and the results of the study have been published.
• Access Criteria: De-identified data will be made available to other qualified investigators upon request. The request will be evaluated by the Principal Investigator to ensure that it meets reasonable demands of scientific inquiry. Data collected for this study will be submitted and shared with the National Institute on Drug Abuse Data Archive per NOT-OD-03-032.

Locations

US (1)