Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2016
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Author: Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times

CDC PAINKILLER GUIDELINES AIM TO CUT ADDICTION

In an effort to curb what many consider the worst public health drug 
crisis in decades, the federal government on Tuesday published the 
first national standards for prescription painkillers, ending months 
of arguments with pain doctors and drug industry groups and beginning 
what officials contend would be more judicious prescribing of the 
highly addictive medicines.

The guidelines, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, are nonbinding, and they come after numerous professional 
medical societies and some states have issued restrictions of their 
own. But they are the broadest measure now in place addressing the 
medications known as opioids, and they are likely to have sweeping 
effects on the practice of medicine.

"This is the first time the federal government is communicating 
clearly to the medical community that the risks outweigh the 
potential benefits of these drugs," said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, head of 
Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, which supports the 
guidelines. "It's one of the most significant interventions by the 
federal government."

The guidelines recommend what many addiction experts have long called 
for  that doctors first try ibuprofen and aspirin to treat pain, and 
that opioid treatment for short-term pain last for three days, and 
rarely longer than seven. Under current practice, patients are often 
given two weeks' or a month's worth of pills.

The guidelines are meant for primary care doctors, who prescribe 
about half of all opioids but often have little training in how to use them.

They call for patients to be urine tested before getting 
prescriptions and for doctors to check prescription drug tracking 
systems to make sure patients are not secretly getting medicine 
somewhere else. Currently, 49 states have such systems, but only 16 
require that doctors use them, according to experts at Brandeis University.

The guidelines do not apply to prescriptions for patients who are 
receiving cancer or end-of-life treatment.
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