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Best Practices Education, Part III: Regulatory and Advisory Issues Related to Opioid Therapy for Pain

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Opioid Dependence

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Abstract

Prescription of opioids is governed at a professional level by guidelines and standards of care established to protect individual patients. At a societal level, both state and federal government have developed laws regarding opioid prescription to minimize the risk of diversion while preserving the physician’s privilege of providing these powerful medications to the right patients in the right manner. The prescription of opioids for pain, whether acute or chronic, cancer or non-cancer related, should always be considered a trial, with continuous assessment of efficacy in facilitating functional goals and analgesia versus adverse effects. This tentative approach of constant reevaluation is necessitated by the low therapeutic window of these agents, with increasing evidence of cumulative harms with long-term use, as discussed in previous chapters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northern Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, LLC, Eagle River, Alaska, USA

    Heath B. McAnally MD, MSPH (Medical Director, Clinical Instructor)

  2. WWAMI Program, University of Washington School of Medicine, Anchorage, Alaska, USA

    Heath B. McAnally MD, MSPH (Medical Director, Clinical Instructor)

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  1. Heath B. McAnally MD, MSPH
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McAnally, H.B. (2018). Best Practices Education, Part III: Regulatory and Advisory Issues Related to Opioid Therapy for Pain. In: Opioid Dependence . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47497-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47497-7_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47496-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47497-7

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