Primary care physicians are on the front line of the opioid epidemic. Help them.

When it comes to the opioid epidemic, physicians are some of the best drug dealers around with almost unrestricted access to the purest substances. As the opioid epidemic spirals out of control, physicians continue to be able to provide their patients with a variety of options, including oxycodone, morphine and fentanyl. Many people would be surprised to know that physicians don’t need any additional training to prescribe opiates to their patients especially considering that 40 percent of opioid deaths last year involved a prescription medication. But paradoxically, if physicians want to treat opioid addiction, they are required to perform eight hours of special training. If this seems backward to you, you are not alone. Moreover, this training requirement remains in place as the opioid epidemic continues to worsen. According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this past month, emergency room visits for opioid overdoses have skyrocketed. There were over 42,000 deaths due to opioid overdoses in 2016 alone which is comparable to the peak death rate seen in the AIDS epidemic. With that being said, we can safely say we are losing this crisis. But there are effective treatments for opioid addiction, so why aren’t we using them? The story begins in 2000 when the Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) was created to broaden access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder by allowing more providers to prescribe treatment. Prior to this,...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Conditions Pain Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs