161. Effects of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) narcotic restrictions on a multidisciplinary spine practice: analysis of patient discharges from the practice during a 10-year period

In the late 1990s to early 2000s, concern about pain under-treatment resulted in greater numbers of prescriptions for pain medications being written across the United States. After this, according to CDC data, from 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people died from a drug overdose with approximately 68% of the more than 70,200 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2017 alone. Government agencies across the country have taken measures to address this alarming trend. An instrumental change occurred on October 6, 2014 when the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) rescheduled hydrocodone combination products from Schedule III to Schedule II to make obtaining narcotics more difficult.
Source: The Spine Journal - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Source Type: research