CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain

COCA Call Series

COCA partnered with CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) and the University of Washington to present a 2016 COCA Call series about CDC’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.

Dates

There are seven webinars in the COCA Call series. Each webinar was recorded and can now be viewed on demand. Free continuing education is available for each webinar.

Overview

The amount of opioids prescribed and sold in the United States has nearly quadrupled since 1999, yet there has not been an overall change in the amount of pain that Americans report. The CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain provides recommendations for safer and more effective prescribing of opioids for chronic pain in patients 18 years and older in outpatient settings outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care. This COCA Call series covered when and how opioids should be initiated for chronic pain, how to assess risk and address harms of opioid use, and when and how opioids should be discontinued. Presenters from the University of Washington provided insight into the application of the Guideline in clinical settings.

Goal

This series used a data-driven approach to help clinicians choose the most effective pain treatment options and improve the safety of opioid prescribing for chronic pain. Case-based content was used to demonstrate how clinicians in primary care settings can incorporate and apply the guideline’s 12 recommendations when using opioids to treat chronic pain.

Presenters

• CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
  • Deborah Dowell, MD, MPH
  • Tamara Haegerich, PhD
• University of Washington
  • David J. Tauben, MD, FACP
  • James P. Robinson, MD, PhD
  • Jane C. Ballantyne, MD, FRCA
  • Mark D. Sullivan, MD, PhD
  • Joseph O. Merrill, MD, MPH

Additional Resources

• CDC Injury Prevention and Control: Opioid Overdose
• MMWR: CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain — United States, 2016
• Checklist for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain
• Factsheet: Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain
• JAMA Special Communication: CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain