Hold Off on Opioids for Chronic Pain Treatment, CDC Says

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued its anticipated new guidelines for prescribing opioids, a move the agency hopes can help reduce the rate of addiction in the U.S.to the powerful painkillers, but which also will have the effect of further dampening sales of the drugs.

"Overprescribing opioids-largely for chronic pain-is a key driver of America's drug-overdose epidemic", CDC Director Tom Frieden, said in announcing the guidelines.

The new CDC guidelines are a recommendation.

One suggestion is prescribing non-addictive pain relievers before considering opioids.

Over the last 30 years, Sunbeam Family Services Counselor David Swope said he's seen every kind of addict but recently he's been seeing a rise in the abuse of prescription drugs, specifically opioids.

In the United States, 46 people died from an overdose of prescription painkillers each day. The 12 recommendations encourage doctors to prescribe lower doses of narcotics, or none at all.

"Three days or less will often be sufficient; more than seven days will rarely be needed", the guidelines say.

In fact, many patients may be pushed more towards specialists now, and critics of the CDC guidelines say many patients now face being under-treated for their pain.

The American Cancer Society criticizes how the guidelines disregard the impact on cancer survivors.

The most widely used opioids include hydrocodone, which is the main active ingredient of Vicodin, and oxycodone, an active ingredient of OxyContin and Percocet.

The CDC provided a decision checklist for clinicians for prescribing painkillers.

"The bad thing about opiates is that they start off great but they rarely end up great so you have to continually reassess whether you need to be on them, if you can get off them and if you're taking appropriate other measures to control your pain and take care of those symptoms", Dr. Rawlings said.

In 2013 alone, an estimated 1.9 million were abusing or addicted to opioid medication according to the CDC.

The new rules, which are voluntary, are aimed at the frontline of healthcare: the primary care physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who write the majority of opioid prescriptions.