Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines on how doctors prescribe opioids for chronic pain. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Rep. John Katko want to see those guidelines pushed even further.
Speaking at an addiction prevention agency in Syracuse, Gillibrand said doctors do not have guidelines for what to prescribe patients with acute pain such as a broken arm or tooth extraction, when the pain is short in duration and not chronic.
“They need direct guidelines about how addictive is this medication, who should receive it, in what quantity and doctors just don’t have that,” Gillibrand said. “When they send home a 30-day supply to a 18-year-old who just got his wisdom tooth out, that’s just trouble waiting to happen. It’s not necessary."
Gillibrand said new guidelines on acute pain could be released by the CDC in a matter of months but she also has legislation with bipartisan support that would require the CDC to issue those guidelines.
Katko said opioid abuse is how a lot of people start with heroin addiction so having extra quantities of these medications lying around is dangerous.
“I have heard story after story of high school athletes, college athletes trying to deal with chronic pain and they end up gravitating over towards heroin after the opioid abuse is done,” Katko said.
While guidelines would not require doctors to change what they prescribe, Gillibrand said it would give doctors better, more accurate information.
“A doctor who got out of med school 30 years ago, may not have had that specific training,” Gillibrand said. “(Patients) are leaving with far more medicine than they need and then they become addicted or they give the extra pills to a family or friend who misuses the medication and another life is destroyed. The same old story again and again.”
Gillibran said prescribing smaller amounts of opioids or something non-addictive such as Extra-Strength Tylenol, could be some possible, common sense solutions.
