Providers must establish a treatment plan, discuss potential risks and even consider regular drug-screening tests for patients for whom they prescribe opioids, advises a
new set of guidelines from the CDC.
Issued March 15, the guidelines, which contain a 12-point list of recommendations for providers that prescribe opioids, are not required of physicians but act as an evidence-based way to curtail the growing trends of opioid abuse.
Recommendation No. 1: Don't prescribe opioids -- as long as alternative options exist, that is. "Nonpharmacologic therapy and nonopioid pharmacologic therapy are preferred for chronic pain," states the guidelines.
The CDC also advises that physicians "establish treatment goals with all patients, including realistic goals for pain and function," and that they also "evaluate risk factors for opioid-related harms." The guidelines also encourage providers to "consider urine drug testing at least annually" to determine whether patients are taking the prescribed medicine as well as other prescriptions or illegal drugs.
The CDC estimates that 20% of patients that show up at a doctor's office with complaints of pain receive an opioid prescription and also notes that providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioids in 2012 alone.
Meanwhile, the agency says, about 165,000 people died from opioid-related causes between 1999 and 2014.