Rhode Island medical journal (2013)
-
New Rhode Island regulations require physicians and other licensed practitioners to make significant adjustments to comply with new requirements for prescribing narcotics for chronic pain. Responding to the opioid epidemic, the new rules are intended to improve patient safety by changing physicians' prescribing patterns. ⋯ The new regulations call upon physicians to make use of consultation services, which are also of limited availability. Although well intentioned, the new rules may contribute to treatment-access problems, and patients with chronic pain may resort to higher-risk "street" drugs when they are unable to access safe but effective medical treatment. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-10.asp].
-
[Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-10.asp].
-
The CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, published last March, provided major steps toward bringing the medical community together to address the opioid epidemic in the U. S. However, the Guideline focuses primarily on treatment of new inductions into opioid therapy for pain. ⋯ Patients already maintained on opioids for chronic pain should not be subjected to abrupt cessation or rapid tapers, and the CDC's Guideline confirms this. Physicians should not balk from treating opioid-dependent patients with chronic pain, and the CDC's recommendations do contain helpful information if one reads through them carefully. This article attempts to distill the major points from the Guideline for the treatment of chronic-pain patients already on long-term opioid therapy.[Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-10.asp].