Overdose and deaths due to opioid use are rising at a fast rate in the United States. The medical profession is now taking steps to curb opioid usage by trying different pain management techniques and teaching doctors about the dangers of prescribing opioids.
How Doctors Are Managing the Opioid Epidemic
The Center for Disease Control has compiled statistics that show the death toll in 2016 for opioid and opiate-based medication use in the United States was over 30,000 people. This is 2.8 times more than the number of deaths due to opioid and opiate use in 2002. The alarming increase has changed the way the medical profession looks at opioids and how they are used. Here are three of the most significant changes the medical profession has made when prescribing opioids to reduce the number of people becoming addicted to opioid-based drugs.
New Pain Management Guidelines
The opioid epidemic affecting the country has caused the American College of Physicians to update and change its pain management guidelines. The new guidelines state that prescribing opioids for chronic pain should be done as a last resort when other pain management techniques have failed.
Doctors should first incorporate non-drug and non-invasive therapies into the pain management program of a patient. Therapies recommended to be done before using pain medications include things like chiropractic spinal manipulation techniques, acupuncture, massage and heat therapy.
New Prescription Guidelines
The Center for Disease Control has also issued new guidelines on how and when doctors should prescribe opioids for people with chronic pain. The guidelines promote the use of non-invasive and non-drug therapies as well as dictate dose rates and usage.
The Joint Commission that accredits thousands of health care centers, clinics and hospitals in the United States has also addressed the use of non-invasive and non-drug techniques to treat chronic pain. The Joint Commission now recommends that physicians use alternative treatments like chiropractic care and acupuncture for patients suffering from severe chronic pain.
Physician Training on Opioids
One of the most cited reasons for the opioid epidemic is that doctors prescribing the medications are often under-trained on the effects of the opioids on patients. For instance, doctors in Arizona do not have to be educated in opioid-based medications and the effects of their usage on patients. A recent survey of doctors showed that 72 percent who were surveyed had an insufficient knowledge of opioids and their effects. This lack of knowledge is about to change.
Public Health Law agencies across the country are undergoing reviews of the training doctors have received in opioid-based medications and are developing continuing education courses that the doctors will be required to take to maintain their license to practice. In time, as more and more doctors take the advanced training, the hope is that they will be more knowledgeable as to how they prescribe opioid-based medications to avoid future addictions and overdoses.
References:
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/
[2] http://annals.org/aim/article/2603228/noninvasive-treatments-acute-subacute-chronic-low-back-pain-clinical-practice
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/prescribing/guideline.html
[4] http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/Clarification_of_the_Pain_Management__Standard.pdf
[5] https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/hookedrx/doctor-training-pain-management-opioids/