(credit: frankieleon)
To help curb “one of the most pressing public health issues” of the day—the epidemic of opioid addiction and overdoses—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released broad, first-of-its-kind guidelines for the use of the deadly medications.
Of the 12 recommendations in the agency’s guidance, the most prominent is the suggestion that doctors refrain from giving opioid prescriptions for chronic pain—the drugs are OK to use for palliative care, cancer patients, and end-of-life treatments. Patients suffering from chronic pain should explore alternative treatment plans and strategies, such as non-opioid medications and exercise therapy, the agency says. And if a doctor feels an opioid should be used for chronic pain management in a patient, it should be done very thoughtfully and with close monitoring, including urine tests for undisclosed opioid use.
“Plainly stated, the risks of opioids are addiction and death, and the benefits for chronic pain are often transient and generally unproven,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a press briefing Tuesday.
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