The Centers for Disease Control is now urging doctors to cut back on prescribing pain killers, amid rising concerns of opioid addiction.Â
"It's a problem in just about any community you're in now," said Kevin Casey, VP of Medical Affairs at St. Rita's.
The new guidelines suggest taking a less aggressive approach to treating acute pain.Â
"The goal of treating people for their pain, maybe is not to get them completely pain free, but to get them to a place where they're comfortable enough and can function at the highest level that they can," Casey said.
This comes after, the CDC estimates that 1.9 million people abused or were dependent on prescription opiates nationwide in 2013. And in 2014, the number of deaths linked to the drugs climbed to about 19 thousand.
"In 2014 more people died from drug overdoses than from car accidents," Casey said.Â
The CDC recommends using other methods to treat pain such as Tylenol or ibuprofen, but If the doctor feels an opioid drug is the best option, they suggest prescribing the lowest dose possible. Â
"The multi-modal approach works best for the patients, so you can keep the opioids down to the minimum that you would need, or maybe for 7-10 days of therapy," Brian Latham, Director of Pharmacy at St. Rita's, said.Â
And while the numbers are still large the total doses of opioids dispensed to Ohio patients has decreased, from 793 million in 2012 to 701 million in 2015, an 11.6 percent drop.Â
"Over the next few months we really hope to be able to see maybe a change in some providers prescribing practices," Casey said.
