Advertisementįurther Reading CDC just says no to opioid prescriptions for chronic painLikewise, when researchers and health experts recently reassessed the common practice of using opioids for chronic pain, they also found a dearth of data backing the prescriptions. The authors of the new trial, led by Andrew Chang of Albany Medical College in New York, note that common medical practice and guidelines, including those championed by the World Health Organization, suggest that opioids are simply more effective at treating acute pain than non-opioid medications-or combinations of them. In 2015, more than 30,000 people died of opioid overdoses, and currently an estimated 91 people die each day from the drugs. The implications are staggering given the current epidemic of opioid abuse and addiction gripping the country. “This change in prescribing habit,” they write, “could potentially help mitigate the ongoing opioid epidemic by reducing the number of people initially exposed to opioids and the subsequent risk of addiction.”īeyond that, the study flings into light the poor data backing current opioid prescription practices and the dwindling scenarios in which the dangerous drugs are firmly warranted. The authors of the study, which was published Tuesday in JAMA, suggest that emergency room doctors may be able to simply skip the opioids during and after urgent treatment. Further Reading With a 10-day supply of opioids, 1 in 5 become long-term usersIn a randomized, double-blind clinical trial-the gold standard of trials-a combination of ibuprofen (Advil) and acetaminophen (Tylenol) was just as effective at treating patients with acute pain in an extremity as three other pain-killer combinations containing opioids.