“Overprescribing opioids – largely for chronic pain – is a key driver of America’s drug-overdose epidemic”.
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“While these are important measures we need prescribers to take, they are just guidelines and we need requirements to ensure all prescribers of opioid painkillers are educated in safe prescribing practices and the identification of possible substance use disorders”, Markey said. The American Medical Association, the largest professional group for physicians, cautioned that the guidelines could create problems if they steer patients toward pain treatments that aren’t accessible or covered by insurance.
The CDC defines chronic pain as pain that lasts longer than three months or past the time of normal tissue healing. Officials from Medi-Cal, which provides health coverage to a third of Californians, said Tuesday that they planned to share the guidelines with their physicians who prescribe opioids for chronic pain.
The CDC guidelines do not apply to patients suffering from serious or terminal illnesses such as cancer.
The advice is aimed at primary care physicians, who prescribe almost half of the opioid painkillers consumed in the U.S. The guidelines aren’t intended for doctors treating cancer patients or for end-of-life care.
The 12-point guideline aims to improve the safety of prescribing and curtail the harms associated with opioid use; focuses on increasing the use of other effective treatment options for chronic pain; and offers providers specific information on medication selection, dosage, duration and how to reassess the progress, according to the CDC. For the “vast majority” of patients, CDC Director Tom Frieden said, the risks of prescribing such drugs “will outweigh the benefits”. Three days or less will often be sufficient; more than seven days will rarely be needed.
After the CDC postponed release of its final regulations in January, saying it needed more time to accept public comments, six Democrats, led by Sen.
Frieden stressed that the final decision on prescribing drugs will remain with doctors. Sue Walker, who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia two decades ago, takes opioid pain medications daily and said she feared doctors would stop prescribing drugs to people who depend on them.
“Even if you’re not the one being prescribed them the more that are being prescribed the more access everyone has to them whether that’s through sharing medication or stealing”, Stander said.
“When opiates are used, start low and go slow”, Frieden said, meaning doctors should increase the dose of medication slowly and only when necessary.
That’s not to say that the CDC recommendations are not welcome, according to Singer, who believes they can only add extra weight to local and state efforts already underway. “Alternatives to opiates should be looked at first”, said Goodman. The entire CDC guideline on opiates can be read here.
More than 40 Americans die every day from painkiller overdoses, a staggering rate that Frieden said is “doctor driven”. The analysis also found that up to 26 percent of chronic pain patients taking the drugs long-term became dependent on them.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new prescribing guidelines Tuesday to address the opioid epidemic, Stat reports.
