New Report and Recommendations: Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic. The resulting report, Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use, states that a sustained, coordinated effort is necessary to stem the still-escalating prevalence of opioid-related harms, including a culture change in prescribing for chronic noncancer pain, aggressive regulation of opioids by the FDA, and multi-pronged policies by state and local governments. However, the committee also counsels against arbitrary restrictions on access to opioids by suffering patients whose health care providers have prescribed these drugs responsibly."