Data released earlier this week shows the number of prescriptions written for pain killers continues to fall as physicians and pharmacists try to combat the number of deadly addictions.
The numbers released by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy show 701 million painkiller pills were dispensed to Ohio patients last year. That number is down by 12 percent from the 793 million painkillers dispensed in 2012. The numbers also show a 71 percent decrease in the number of patients going from doctor to doctor, trying to get more painkillers. Officials credit this in part to the pharmacies being required to report whenever a patient has filled an opioid prescription. One local doctor says more can still be done on the physicians end.
"Starting with us as providers or prescribers, being well-educated on how to take a good history, physical exam, interpreting our own imaging that we ordered, so creating everything together to come up with a firm diagnosis for our patients and that way we can better legitimize whether these patients should be on an opioid medications in the first place," says Dr. Vikas K. Pilly, a board-certified pain management physician at Lima Memorial.
He says physicians should try exhausting all other therapies, such as physical therapy or chiropractic, to relieve a patient's pain before resorting to opioid medications.
