CDC released on Tuesday new guidelines for prescribing opioid medications for chronic pain.
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In this February 11 photo, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.
“More than 40 Americans die each day from prescription opioid overdoses, we must act now”, CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, said in a media telebriefing. Increased prescribing and sales of opioids – quadruple since 1999 – helped create and fuel this epidemic, according to the CDC.
I hope this will allow primary care providers to have a conversation with patients about the risks and benefits of opioids and to consider non-opioids as the first-line treatment for pain.
The CDC is turning to doctors with a new set of guidelines intended in part to keep opioids from being the first step in chronic pain management.
Aside from asking the doctors to refrain from prescribing opioid for patients with chronic pain, patients are likewise asked to be honest as possible in disclosing their opioid use with their physicians.
With a well-known litany of evidence showing the addiction problem, other research is showing far less of the drugs are needed for many patients, if the drugs are even necessary – a study in Canada showed physical therapy patients fared better without opioid painkillers.
“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.
But not everyone is so sure these new guidelines will work.
Past year also saw almost 19,000 deaths linked to the drugs – the highest number on record.
Opioid is one of the most commonly prescribed painkillers for patients with chronic pain.
A lot of people need to do their rehab and get exercise, because many pain problems are self-induced from bad behaviors.
According to the CDC, in 2012, doctors handed out 259 million opioid prescriptions. Among them, patients must sign a “pain treatment agreement” which explains addiction risks.
Opioids are not only prescription medications, such as morphine and oxycodone, but also illegal drugs like heroin.
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“The implication is that you shouldn’t have to have any pain and the reality is that that’s just not very practical”, Dr. Deborah McMahan, Allen County Health Commissioner said.
