Best Practices in Prescribing Protocol

I don’t think it’s out of the scope of good practice to even have a conversation pre-prescription of opioids to say, I’m considering prescribing these things to you, but just keep in mind that these can cause problems with people and you really don’t know whether it will or won’t unless you do it or you take these medications. But these are things that you should be aware of that could go wrong and if something is going wrong, I need to know about it as the prescriber.

I think a lot of prescribers are hesitant to ask the question because they really don’t know what to do next--what if the patient says yes, what am I going to do now? So build the infrastructure for referral, understand what’s available in your community so you can readily refer this person at least to AA, to a 12-step meeting or an addiction specialist or somebody who is equipped to really handle the situation.