Opioid prescriptions have fallen more than 40 percent over the past decade in response to the opioid overdose and addiction crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has played a role in that by encouraging doctors to prescribe fewer painkillers. But that has made it more difficult for patients with chronic pain to get the medication they need. "The agency has drafted a new version, but some worry it doesn't protect patients enough," Will Stone reports for NPR.
"There's broad agreement now that the 2016 guidelines were misapplied to pain patients like Votta," Stone reports. Dr. Roger Chou, who helped write the 2016 guidelines, told Stone the guidelines were only ever meant to guide doctors, not stop them from prescribing appropriate medication to patients with chronic pain. But many states used the guidelines as the basis for new laws, some of which limited doctors' ability to prescribe opioids.
The CDC's new prescribing guidelines show promise, some experts say. "The top-line recommendations no longer include specifics about the dose or duration a patient shouldn't exceed when taking opioids. The draft also warns up front that the guidelines should not be used as inflexible standards of care," Stone reports. But the lack of specific guidance could make some doctors uncomfortable and cause them to stop prescribing opioids at all, another expert said.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/VRLnhGT Some pain patients and doctors worry the CDC's new opioid prescription guidelines could be harmful - Entrepreneur Generations
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