The nation’s top public health agency is proposing changing—and in some instances, softening—guidelines for doctors prescribing opioid painkillers.
FILE - This June 17, 2019, file photo shows 5-mg pills of Oxycodone. The nation's top public health agency on Thursday proposed changing — and in some instances, dulling — guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers.agency on Thursday proposed changing — and in some instances, softening — guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers.
The proposed changes, contained in a 229-page draft update in the Federal Register, would roll back some suggested limits on the drugs. Their publication opens a 60-day public comment period. The CDC will consider comments before finalizing the updated guidance. “That's disastrous for patients in pain,” said Mukkamala, chairman of the American Medical Association board of trustees.
When U.S. overdose deaths began skyrocketing, prescription painkillers were identified as a big reason. Governments tried to restrict the prescriptions, but the overdose epidemic worsened as people hooked on pills switched to heroin and then to fentanyl. Those kinds of illegal injected drugs are now associated with the majority of U.S. overdose deaths.
They also came under attack from pain patients and drug manufacturers, who argued some people in severe pain were being denied needed relief.
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CDC proposes softer guidance on opioid prescriptionsThe nation's top public health agency on Thursday proposed changing — and in some instances, softening — guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's previous guidance, issued six years ago, helped slow the kind of prescribing that ignited the worst overdose epidemic in U.S. history. “We began to hear how the guidelines were being misused and misapplied' said the CDC's Christopher Jones, a co-author of the draft guidance.
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