How Obama’s opioid initiatives align with physician recommendations

An AMA Viewpoints post by Patrice A. Harris, MD, chair-elect of the AMA Board of Trustees As a nation, we are working incredibly hard to turn the course of the opioid epidemic in a new direction. This week I had the great pleasure to be part of an event that focused on hope, possibilities and action. President Obama announced new initiatives that would expand access to treatment for substance use disorder, among other important actions that align with measures we physicians have recommended. The president’s initiatives, announced Tuesday at the National Rx Drug and Heroin Abuse Summit in Atlanta, combined with the progress of related legislation in Congress, make it clear that addressing this epidemic is a national priority. The administration has taken the next step to expand access to treatment, prevent overdose deaths and increase community prevention strategies. So how do these actions fall in line with the recommendations of the AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse? The steps that we need to take We are seeing that physicians have become more judicious in our prescribing practices as the number of prescriptions for opioids has fallen in recent years, according to new data from IMS Health. From 2013 to 2014, the number of opioid prescriptions decreased 2.9 percent nationally. From 2014 to 2015, the number of prescriptions decreased another 6.8 percent, and every state saw a decrease in the number of opioid prescriptions. This is a good sign, but we need man...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news