Screening Chronic Pain Consumers for Potential Prescription Opiod Misuse by Medical Professionals

Introduction Opioids have been viewed for centuries as the most effective treatment for chronic pain, yet in the past decade the misuse of prescription opioids has become a The number of prescriptions filled for opioid pain relievers—some of the most powerful medications available—has increased dramatically in recent years. From 1997 to 2007, the milligram per person use of prescription opioids in the U.S. increased from 74 milligrams to 369 milligrams, an increase of 402 percent. In addition, in 2000, retail pharmacies dispensed 174 million prescriptions for opioids; by 2009, 257 million prescriptions were dispensed, an increase of 48 2011), 17.3% reported pain relievers as the initial drug of illicit drug use. In addition, the non-medical use of prescription pain relievers is the second most common form of illicit report, an estimated 5.2 million people had reported non-medical prescription opioid misuse (SAMHSA, 2009b). On the other hand, according to the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), a mere 7.1% of individuals that were admitted into a substance abuse treatment facility report other opioids as his or her primary substance of abuse 2 (SAMHSA, 2009b). Moreover, these statistics indicate that although a substantial number of individuals report non-medical prescription opioid misuse, only a small percentage are undergoing the necessary treatment. stating prescription opioid misuse overdose incidents have been increasingly surpassing those individuals overdosing from heroin by approximately 5.38 times. (See Figure 1) In addition, the lack of individuals receiving substance abuse treatment has facilitated a need to address prescription opioid misuse in individuals with non-malignant chronic pain through the implementation from a multidisplinary team approach with the purpose of providing the adequate education to consumers for this widespread epidemic (ONDCP, 2011).