opioids

President’s Opioid Crisis Commission Issues Recommendations

The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis has issued 56 recommendations aimed at opioid prescribing, addiction prevention and treatment, law-enforcement strategies, and funding.

“The most urgent goals and readily quantifiable achievements will be a reduction in overdose episodes and deaths, increased entry into and adherence to high quality treatment, and a reduction in prescribed opioids,” the authors wrote.
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Among the Commission’s recommendations:

  • Modification to the Controlled Substances Act should be considered to allow the Drug Enforcement Administration to require all prescribers who want to prescribe opioids to demonstrate participation in an opioid-focused continuing medical education program.
  • Addiction treatment and knowledge should be prioritized and adequate resources used to increase the number of addiction-trained psychiatrists, and other physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, physician assistants, and community health workers in regions and facilities in need of specialists.
  • Collaboration between the Department of Education and states with student assessment programs to screen at-risk youth in middle school, high school, and colleges, such as the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment program.
  • Health and Human Services should coordinate the development of a national curriculum and standard of care for opioid prescribers that would include updated guidelines on prescribing pain medications designed by an expert committee in order to supplement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for primary care physicians.

“The goals of the recommendations included in this report are to promote prevention of all drug use with effective education campaigns and restrictions in supply of illicit and misused drugs,” the authors concluded.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

President’s Commission. The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/Meeting%20Draft%20of%20Final%20Report%20-%20November%201%2C%202017.pdf. Accessed November 3, 2017.