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In addition to other shortcomings, current prescribing guidelines are particularly ill-suited to the needs and challenges of patients already on opioid therapy. Drs. Heit and Gourlay discuss the roots of the problem and the role of primary care as talented amateurs in addiction medicine.
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Researchers from Ohio State University have completed what they report as the first study of the network structure of an encrypted online drug distribution network, examining patterns of behavior between buyers and sellers of illicit opioids. They report that first-time buyers on the so-called...
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Public policy reaction to the opioid crisis has significant implications for practitioners and their patients with pain. Attorney Michael Barnes looks at the current federal and state-level regulatory picture, and at some benefits, drawbacks, and unintended consequences of regulatory response.
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Buprenorphine was approved for the treatment of opioid use disorder in 2002, with the stipulation that prescribing clinicians obtain a waiver from the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and with limitations on how many patients those authorized prescribers may treat in...
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Researchers from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University recently completed a comparative analysis of the impact of Medicaid expansions on states’ abilities to respond to the opioid abuse crisis. By contrasting states that have expanded Medicaid coverage with...
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At PAINWeek 2016, a panel of medical, legal, and pharmacy specialists convened to offer their views on the recently introduced prescribing guidelines for chronic pain from the CDC. In this segment, Dr. Ziegler and Dr. Fudin summarize some of the concerns voiced over the guideline development process...
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The use of interventional procedures is probably going to increase due to the CDC guidelines, because they are emphasizing non-opioid, and non-pharmacological therapies. So this is an important area for primary care doctors to understand, specifically if we look at patients with low back pain, one...
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New research may change the prevailing approach to treating neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), according to the authors of a New England Journal of Medicine article published last week. Currently, babies born to mothers who have used opioids, and who then suffer symptoms of withdrawal, are...
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PAINWeek faculty member Gary Jay discusses what's going on with opioid prescribing today, and why some doctors may be prescribing opioids when they might do better with another medication.
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A number of factors came together to facilitate increased prescribing of opioids and prescribing to more people using higher doses. There was a perceived under treatment of chronic pain. Laws and regulations were passed in many states to permit the use of opioids for that purpose, for which they...