CDC Releases Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids

The dramatic increase in overdose deaths due to opioids has been a major focus of political and medical leaders over the last few months, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently released new guidelines for practitioners to think twice before prescribing opioid medications for their patients.
The guidelines, which are voluntary, ask primary care providers who are treating adults with chronic pain to consider alternatives to prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, to limit treatment length, and to monitor their patients to see if the opioids are the best choice for them.
Even though the guidelines are nonbinding, they are important because they are a broad blueprint addressing opioid use. Some believe that doctors may begin to fear lawsuits if they do not follow them, and that insurance companies may begin to use them to determine reimbursement.
The guidelines, which are not meant to be applied to patients who suffer from terminal illness or to patients who have had surgery, call for doctors to first try ibuprofen and aspirin to treat pain and that opioid treatment for short-term pain last for three days and rarely longer than seven. In current practice, by contrast, patients are often given two to four weeks' worth of pills.
Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the CDC, stated, "it has become increasingly clear that opioids carry substantial risk but only uncertain benefits – especially compared with other treatments for chron...

Source: Policy and Medicine - March 21, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs