Publication date: Jul 21, 2025
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Canada issued a temporary exemption for the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). Very little is known about pharmacists prescribing opioids under the CDSA temporary exemption. To evaluate the impact of CDSA subsection 56(1) temporary exemption on prescribing of opioids by direct patient care pharmacists during COVID-19 between February 1, 2018 to April 30, 2022. Descriptive statistics (sample mean, sample standard deviation, sample proportion) and data visualization tools were used to explore the possible changes due to CDSA. In the first stage, a linear regression model was fit to the data to detect the changes. Second, time dependence of the data was checked by examining the autocorrelation plots and testing dependence of the residuals, and then a suitable time series process was used. The mean overall pharmacist-prescribed opioid weekly claims increased from 0. 0 (per-CDSA policy period) to 57. 0 (post-CDSA policy period). The time series regression for the mean level change for the overall prescription data was 36. 29, 95% CI 27. 14, 48. 52, p
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| April | analgesic |
| Canada | opioid use disorder |
| Opioids | opioids |
| Therapy | Pharmacists |
| scope of practice |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 pandemic |
| disease | IDO | process |
| disease | MESH | opioid use disorder |