The guidelines carve out an exception for patients receiving cancer treatment or end-of-life care.
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The agency is recommending that non-opioid drugs be prescribed whenever possible and that when opioids are given to patients, low doses and less than a week’s supply should be provided.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new guideline for prescribing opiate painkillers when treating chronic pain as the drugs continue to serve as a unsafe pathway to addiction.
“It’s the first time the federal government has clearly communicated to the medical community that widespread and routine practice of treating long-term chronic pain with opioids is inappropriate,”Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the group’s executive director, told Stat”.
“The opioid epidemic is one of the most pressing public health issues in the United States today”, Burwell said.
LA Times reports that since the late 1990’s, more than 160,000 people in the USA have died from fatal opioid overdose. A survey the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 56% of all Americans had a direct connection with someone who had struggled with opioid or heroin addiction or had died of an overdose. “Beginning treatment with an opioid is a momentous decision, and it should only be done with full understanding by the doctor and the patient of risks involved”.
Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin both approved of new CDC recommendations released Tuesday for prescribing opioid medications for chronic pain. CDC Director, Tom Frieden, released a statement shortly after the new CDC opiate guidelines were released. Three days or less will often be sufficient; more than seven days will rarely be needed.
The crisis also has prompted congressional action; the Senate passed a bill last week to expand grants for prescription drug and heroin abuse prevention and treatment. “The Guideline represents CDC’s effort to help primary care clinicians communicate with, and treat patients in pain”.
“It’s a way to find out what level of opioids the patient might already be on”, Becky Vaughn, vice president of addictions at the National Council for Behavioral Health, who is familiar with the guidelines, said in an interview. They call for patients to be urine tested before getting prescriptions and for doctors to check prescription drug tracking systems to make sure patients are not secretly getting medicine somewhere else.
Under the new guidelines, the CDC advised doctors to avoid prescribing painkillers as a first-choice for common ailments, such as back pain and arthritis.
Non-opioid therapy is preferred for chronic pain in cases not involving cancer, palliative and end-of-life care, according to the guidelines.
“The over-prescription of painkillers ferociously feeds the rampant opioid epidemic now sweeping our country like a hurricane, and these common-sense guidelines will usher in changes that will help calm this deadly storm”, Blumenthal added.
CDC says deaths from opioid overdoses have hit an all-time record in the U.S.
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“It’s become increasingly clear that opioids carry substantial risks but only uncertain benefits, especially compared with other treatments for chronic pain”, Frieden said in a telephone press conference. And when doctors must prescribe opioid painkillers, the guidelines say that a prescription of three days or fewer should suffice.
