CDC guidelines aim to curb painkiller prescribing
9 years ago

CDC guidelines aim to curb painkiller prescribing

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Prescription painkillers should not be a first choice for treating common ailments like back pain and arthritis, according to new federal guidelines designed to reshape how doctors prescribe drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin. “We’re trying to chart a safer and more effective course for dealing with chronic pain,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC’s director, said in an interview with the Associated Press. “The risks of addiction and death are very well documented for these medications.” More than 40 Americans die every day from painkiller overdoses, a staggering rate that Frieden said is “doctor driven.” Under the new guidelines, doctors would prescribe painkillers only after considering non-addictive pain relievers, behavioral changes and other options. FDA labeling for the drugs is broad, listing uses like “relief of moderate to severe pain.” Guidelines by pain specialists provide more detail, but focus less on risks.

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History of this topic

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.
1 year, 8 months ago

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.

Huff Post  

The author in the hospital in 2013 just before her high-dose chemotherapy began. I was one of the millions of Americans who needed high doses of opioids while unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies lied and encouraged doctors to over-prescribe OxyContin, while “pill mills” distributed these addictive medications far and wide, and while illegally produced Fentanyl found its way into street drugs like …

Chronic pain patients struggle to get opioid prescriptions filled, even as CDC eases guidelines
2 years ago

Chronic pain patients struggle to get opioid prescriptions filled, even as CDC eases guidelines

CNN  

KHN — Jessica Layman estimates she has called more than 150 doctors in the past few years in her search for someone to prescribe opioids for her chronic pain. The first CDC guidelines “put everybody on notice,” said Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, chair of the American Medical Association’s Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force. Taking into account the perspective of …

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.
2 years, 1 month ago

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.

Huff Post  

The author in the hospital in 2013 just before her high-dose chemotherapy began. I was one of the millions of Americans who needed high doses of opioids while unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies lied and encouraged doctors to over-prescribe OxyContin, while “pill mills” distributed these addictive medications far and wide, and while illegally produced Fentanyl found its way into street drugs like …

Op-Ed: Opioids don’t do enough for chronic pain sufferers
2 years, 2 months ago

Op-Ed: Opioids don’t do enough for chronic pain sufferers

LA Times  

A protester gathers bottles of pills including OxyContin at a 2019 anti-opioid demonstration in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. A new form of cognitive therapy called pain reprocessing therapy — which according to researchers teaches people that “the brain actively constructs primary chronic pain in the absence of tissue damage and that reappraising …

Op-Ed: Finally, some promising news on opioids for patients in severe pain
2 years, 3 months ago

Op-Ed: Finally, some promising news on opioids for patients in severe pain

LA Times  

The U.S. remains in the midst of an ever-worsening drug overdose crisis. Meanwhile, physicians have had to balance the risk of criminal prosecution for prescribing opioids against their responsibility to treat patients’ pain. While some doctors were financially incentivized to overprescribe opioids, others caught scrutiny simply for providing relief to patients in debilitating pain. Tragically, recent studies found that chronic …

US agency softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors
2 years, 4 months ago

US agency softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday softened its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. Opioids painkillers can be addictive — even when used under doctors’ orders — and were identified as a big reason for a rise in U.S. drug overdoses that began more than two decades ago. Some modifications were …

CDC updates opioid prescribing guidelines with new recommendations on tapering or continuing prescriptions
2 years, 4 months ago

CDC updates opioid prescribing guidelines with new recommendations on tapering or continuing prescriptions

CNN  

CNN — For the first time since 2016, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidelines for clinicians and patients on the use of prescription opioids to treat short-term and long-term pain. Advice for doctors and patients The guidelines recommend that when starting opioid therapy for any pain patient – acute, subacute or chronic – “clinicians …

CDC softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors
2 years, 4 months ago

CDC softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors

LA Times  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone, above, and other opioid painkillers. The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday softened its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. Opioid painkillers can be addictive — even when used under doctors’ orders — and were identified as a big reason …

Experts concerned about last year's sudden increase in opioid use
2 years, 9 months ago

Experts concerned about last year's sudden increase in opioid use

NL Times  

Last year, use of the heavy painkiller oxycodone increased sharply after years of decline. Loneliness from the coronavirus pandemic could also play a role in the sustained use of the painkillers, since they can also make people experiencing trauma feel better temporarily, said Kees Kramers, internist-clinical pharmacologist at Radboudumc and professor of Medicine Safety. The Appropriate Use of Opioids task …

CDC proposes softer guidance on opioid prescriptions
3 years, 1 month ago

CDC proposes softer guidance on opioid prescriptions

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday proposed changing — and in some instances, softening — guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. But it also caused some doctors to become too quick to cut off patients taking prescription painkillers and too strict in keeping the drugs from patients who might benefit, CDC …

Kirsten Gillibrand Faces Opioid Bill Backlash From Disability Community
6 years ago

Kirsten Gillibrand Faces Opioid Bill Backlash From Disability Community

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Following backlash from patients with chronic pain and people in the disability community, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Wednesday found herself backpedaling on her recently introduced legislation to put a time limit on opioid prescriptions. While the legislation’s text hasn’t been submitted to Congress’ website yet, Gillibrand’s news release specified that the prescription limit was not meant for …

Opioids offer little chronic pain benefit and wane over time, study says
6 years, 3 months ago

Opioids offer little chronic pain benefit and wane over time, study says

CNN  

CNN — For adults with chronic pain, opioids offer narrow improvements over a placebo for pain and physical functioning, on average, according to a new analysis published Tuesday. “The benefits of opioids for managing chronic pain tend to be quite modest,” said study author Jason Busse, associate professor in the department of anesthesia at McMaster University’s school of medicine in …

Access to opoids needs to improve
6 years, 3 months ago

Access to opoids needs to improve

Deccan Chronicle  

Hyderabad: Less than two per cent of patients who experience intense pain, especially in end-stage cases, are able to access opoid drugs for palliative care, though it has been made easier due to recent amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The most important segment which nows requires end-stage care is cancer patients for whom pain relief has …

The Government’s Solution To The Opioid Crisis Feels Like A War To Pain Patients
6 years, 7 months ago

The Government’s Solution To The Opioid Crisis Feels Like A War To Pain Patients

Huff Post  

Jay Lawrence, an energetic truck driver in his late 30s, was driving a semitrailer across a bridge when the brakes failed. “And then that they’re denied relief by a doctor with the one medicine proven effective for pain control for 50 centuries.” “The CDC guidelines have been weaponized.” - Dr. Stefan Kertesz The government’s aggressive focus on doctors and patients …

There's Another Opioid Crisis We Don't Talk About And I'm Trapped In The Middle Of It
6 years, 8 months ago

There's Another Opioid Crisis We Don't Talk About And I'm Trapped In The Middle Of It

Huff Post  

Rick Lunkenheimer lying at a 45-degree angle on a wedge pillow with extra pillow for neck support, configurable desk and microphone for voice dictation. The debate on the opioid crisis often overlooks chronic pain patients who take these medications responsibly. Thus, slots with the doctor became a scarce resource, and the net result was that many chronic pain patients weren’t …

Why better pain management techniques are essential to solving the opioid crisis
7 years, 1 month ago

Why better pain management techniques are essential to solving the opioid crisis

ABC  

Australia is facing a critical public health issue of poorly managed pain. The combination of poor health outcomes, inappropriate prescribing for pain and non-prescription use of opioids has resulted in opioid-related deaths surpassing the national annual road toll. Opioids are best used for acute pain management, to manage severe pain after surgery, injuries or burns, pain from problems such as …

Is There A Way To Keep Using Opioid Painkillers And Reduce Risk?
7 years, 4 months ago

Is There A Way To Keep Using Opioid Painkillers And Reduce Risk?

NPR  

Is There A Way To Keep Using Opioid Painkillers And Reduce Risk? "Life wasn't going to be worth living if I couldn't get the pain under control," McHann says. In a viewpoint published last month in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, CDC officials wrote that while illicit opioids such as fentanyl seem to be driving the recent …

Op-Ed: The opioid crackdown is making life untenable for chronic pain patients like me
7 years, 5 months ago

Op-Ed: The opioid crackdown is making life untenable for chronic pain patients like me

LA Times  

President Trump recently said that he intends to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency. The rate of misuse is much lower among patients who are prescribed opioid medication for chronic pain — 21% to 29%, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. An even smaller percentage of chronic pain patients develop a disorder — between 8% and 12%. …

A guide to prescribing painkillers ethically
7 years, 5 months ago

A guide to prescribing painkillers ethically

Daily Mail  

America's opioid crisis is getting worse. As a bioethicist working on the ethical and policy issues regarding prescription opioids, I am grateful to the National Academy of Medicine for inviting me to serve on this publication's authorship team, and for taking seriously the ethical component of the prescription opioid crisis. A National Academy of Medicine researcher has written a guide …

Cutting down on opioids has made life miserable for chronic pain patients.
7 years, 7 months ago

Cutting down on opioids has made life miserable for chronic pain patients.

Slate  

On July 26, Todd Graham, 56, a well-respected rehabilitation specialist in Mishawaka, Indiana, lost his life. My doctor decided that she did not want to treat me anymore, didn’t give me a last prescription, and didn’t wait until I found another pain doctor who would help me.” For the past 30 years, Dr. R has been an advocate for better …

Doctors increasingly face charges for patient overdoses
7 years, 7 months ago

Doctors increasingly face charges for patient overdoses

CNN  

Story highlights Between 2011 and 2016, the number of doctors punished by the DEA jumped more than five times One challenge is whether and how to wean some patients off long-term opioids for chronic pain CNN — Doctors are increasingly being held accountable – some even facing murder charges – when their patients overdose on opioid painkillers they prescribed. “The …

Should you tough out pain or take painkillers?
8 years, 10 months ago

Should you tough out pain or take painkillers?

CNN  

Watch “Prescription Addiction: Made in the USA,” an “Anderson Cooper 360” town hall special hosted by Anderson Cooper and CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, at 9 p.m. Story highlights 2 million Americans abused or became dependent on opioid painkillers in 2014, the CDC says Even if prescribed, patients should ask serious questions before taking opioids for pain CNN …

You asked, we answered: The best from our Reddit Q&A on OxyContin
8 years, 10 months ago

You asked, we answered: The best from our Reddit Q&A on OxyContin

LA Times  

The drugmaker Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin two decades ago with a bold marketing claim: One dose relieves pain for 12 hours, more than twice as long as generic medications. But our Los Angeles Times investigation found that OxyContin’s stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people, exposing them to painful symptoms of withdrawal …

Opioids are bad medicine for chronic pain, say new federal guidelines
9 years ago

Opioids are bad medicine for chronic pain, say new federal guidelines

LA Times  

Federal health officials speaking in unusually blunt terms Tuesday called on the American medical community to turn away from treating common ailments with highly addictive painkillers, saying the nation’s prescription drug epidemic was a “doctor-driven” crisis. About 250 million painkiller prescriptions were written in 2013, enough, the agency noted, “for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.” In …

CDC Has Advice For Primary Care Doctors About Opioids
9 years ago

CDC Has Advice For Primary Care Doctors About Opioids

NPR  

CDC Has Advice For Primary Care Doctors About Opioids Enlarge this image toggle caption Robin Nelson/Zumapress.com/Corbis Robin Nelson/Zumapress.com/Corbis In response to the opioid epidemic that has swept the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released long-anticipated guidelines on prescribing opioid painkillers such as OxyContin and Percocet. On how Houry hopes the guidelines will change the way doctors treat …

FDA Ratchets Down On Prescribing Of OxyContin And Other Opioids
11 years, 6 months ago

FDA Ratchets Down On Prescribing Of OxyContin And Other Opioids

NPR  

FDA Ratchets Down On Prescribing Of OxyContin And Other Opioids toggle caption Toby Talbot/Associated Press The Food and Drug Administration today took another step toward restricting use of OxyContin and other powerful and often-abused prescription pain medications. "The FDA is invoking its authority to require safety labeling changes and post-market studies to combat the crisis of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose …

Doctors Call For Pullback On Narcotics For Chronic Pain
13 years, 6 months ago

Doctors Call For Pullback On Narcotics For Chronic Pain

NPR  

Doctors Call For Pullback On Narcotics For Chronic Pain Enlarge this image toggle caption Sue Ogrocki/AP Sue Ogrocki/AP In a bracing call to action, three doctors from California are telling their peers to think twice before prescribing potent narcotics for patients with chronic pain. Sponsor Message "Unfortuantely, the use of prescription opioids currently results in more deaths in the United …

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