Prescription drug monitoring programs evaluation: A systematic review of reviews

Ref ID	912
First Author	E. Tay
Journal	DRUG & ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
Year Of Publishing	2023
URL	https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871623001254?via%3Dihub
Keywords	• Protocols • Pharmacological • Low methodological quality • Pre-specification • Transparency
Problem(s)	• Lack of prespecification in eligibility criteria • Reasons for excluding potentially eligible studies not provided • Conflicts of interest or funding of included studies not assessed • No registered or published protocol • Undocumented or unjustified deviations to the review protocol • Low methodological (AMSTAR) quality
Number of systematic reviews included	12
Summary of Findings	From 12 included systematic reviews of prescription drug monitoring programs indexed across MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and PROSPERO up to 26 March 2021. Half (n=6) of the included papers were rated as “critically low” methodological quality. The AMSTAR-2 items which were the least well reported were: no report availability/deviations from a protocol (58.3%); authors did not explain their selection of the study designs for inclusion (58.3%); authors did not provide a list of excluded studies and justify the exclusions (100%); authors did not report on the sources of funding for the studies included in the review (91.5%).
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results?	N/A
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study?	Yes