Opioid prescriptions: CDC guidelines are needed
Common sense would certainly dictate that those individuals who have survived an opioid-related overdose should not be prescribed additional opioid medicines.
So much for common sense. A recent study published in the Annuals of Internal Medicine found that more than 90 percent of the 3,000 chronic pain patients included in the study who had survived an opioid related overdose between 2000 and 2012 kept receiving opioid medicines from their doctors. Seriously?
The results of the study, conducted at Boston Medical Center, are particularly alarming in light of America’s prescription drug epidemic and the growing number of overdose deaths being reported in the country, and right here in southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia.
The study in question involved 2,848 commercially insured patients between 18 and 64 years old who had an opioid overdose, which wasn’t fatal, during long-term pain medication therapy for pain that wasn’t related to cancer between May 2000 and December 2012, according to the medical center’s results. During the study, researchers learned that opioid pain medication was given to 91 percent of the patients after an overdose, according to the published results. And almost all the patients continued to receive opioid prescriptions despite their near fatal overdoes.
Unbelievable.
At least two lawmakers serving our region argue that the study highlights the need for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) opioid prescribing guidelines. Such guidelines, according to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., would provide guidance to physicians for treating chronic pain patients and urge greater consideration of the risks of addiction and overdose death.
“I am outraged that after these patients survived an opioid-related overdose, there was so little consideration of the risks of addiction and death that these patients were still being prescribed opioid medications,” Manchin said. “While this may be appropriate for certain patients, this study highlights major flaws in our health care system that allow those patients who are either addicted or at risk of addiction to continue to receive these dangerous opioid medications. Our doctors need guidance and education on safe and responsible prescribing methods to ensure that patients who are at a high risk of overdose receive the treatment that they need.”
“The United States is in the midst of the worst prescription opioid epidemic in our history, which has claimed the lives of nearly 19,000 in 2014 alone,” Kaine added. “One critical step we must take to address this national, public health crisis is to ensure the responsible prescribing of opioids.”
We agree. The CDC should immediately issue opioid prescribing guidelines. And doctors should most certainly follow those guidelines. While we realize that many cancer patients may need opioid prescriptions, we believe doctors also need to be more careful when it comes to prescribing these highly addictive medications.
Common sense can go a long way in preventing a potentially fatal drug overdose.
