The National Safety Council is calling the release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new opioid-prescribing guidelines a “watershed moment” in the fight to end prescription painkiller overdoses.
The guidelines call for primary care physicians to avoid prescribing opioids to adults with chronic pain. CDC recommendations include using non-opioid treatment and, if needed, prescribing the lowest possible effective dose of opioids.
More than 50 people die every day from prescription opioid overdoses, according to NSC, which has for several years been advocating action to prevent these deaths.
“Prescribers need this guideline if we ever hope to curb the most fatal drug crisis in U.S. history,” NSC states in a press release. “The guideline is not just appropriate, but necessary to save lives.”
