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In an article published by Medscape on September 28, 2015, Pam Harrison reports on recent claims that prescribing practices in America are largely to blame for the opioid epidemic and drug misuse that is running rampant in America.
Dr. Gary Franklin, MD, MPH is vice president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP). According to the group’s website, the opioid epidemic is a real problem. They point out that:
The group asserts that the rise in opioid deaths is largely due to the fact that there has been a sharp increase in physicians prescribing these drugs to patients over the last 20 years. This occurred following an industry-funded campaign to minimize the risks these drugs pose while exaggerating their benefits. It is believed that this increase in prescribing opioid painkillers has led to rising rates in heroin abuse.
Dr. Franklin recently addressed a group of physicians during a Webinar that was sponsored by the CDC’s Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA). He stated that the most important step toward reversing America’s increasing opioid epidemic is to stop prescribing these drugs to patients for the wrong reasons.
Harrison reports that, “recent reports have consistently concluded that there are insufficient data on the long-term effectiveness of prescription opioids to support their use in the treatment of chronic pain, but there is clear evidence of a dose-dependent risk for serious harm.” Indeed, many doctors prescribe these drugs for the long-term treatment of chronic pain and this is resulting in a number of patients becoming disabled through drug misuse and addiction.
The American Academy of Neurology and a number of states strongly advise against prescribing opioids for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders (particularly lower back pain), frequent headaches, and chronic pain (such as is common with fibromyalgia) as these are the three types of health complaints that are most likely to lead to dose-dependent addiction and significant harm to the patient when treated with opioid painkillers.
Dr. Franklin referred to a study he published in the medical journal Spine in 2008 in which he and his colleagues demonstrated that when workers who sustained lower back injuries were treated with opioids for at least seven days with a dose that was 150 mg morphine equivalent dose (MED), they more than doubled their risk of ending up on disability one year later.
Dr. Franklin strongly recommends that when prescribing opioid drugs, physicians limit the dosage to under 100 mg MED and keep it under 50 mg MED when possible. A dose that exceeds 100 mg MED is very likely to induce harm to the patient, and even at doses between 50 and 99 mg MED, the risk of overdose is still significant. The risk is even greater when the patient is also taking benzodiazepines, muscle relaxants or other sedative drugs.
You can learn more by reading the full article here, or by visiting PROP’s Website here.
