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Speak Out Rheum: How Did We Go So Wrong with Opioid Prescribing?
I have been listening to The Fighter Pilot Podcast because my fantasy career would have been to fly a jet fighter plane (not even remotely possible, given my constitution). I learned that when an aircraft accident occurs, a mishap board is convened, not to assign blame but to try to learn what went wrong and…
The Perils of Pain Meds Revisited
More than 10 years ago, I wrote a commentary in The Rheumatologist, called “Perils of Pain Meds,” about the over-prescribing of opioid analgesics for common causes of chronic noncancer pain, which was a major contributor to the opioid epidemic.1 Since that time, although there has been a greater than 20% decrease in opioid prescribing, the…
Rheumatologists Respond to Prescription Opioid Analgesic Crisis
The alarming statistics on prescription opioid overdoses are well known to medical professionals, thanks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s widely cited finding that deaths from opioid analgesics have increased fourfold since 1999.1 Half of all fatal drug overdoses now involve opioids prescribed by a doctor. Meanwhile, a lack of rigorous research…
Are Opioid Contracts Helpful or Harmful?
The opioid epidemic in the U.S. has destroyed thousands of lives and torn families apart. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 130 people in the U.S. die each day from an opioid overdose. From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 died as a result of drug overdoses. In 2017,…