Open AccessHow opioid prescribing policies influence primary care clinicians’ treatment decisions and conversations with patients with chronic pain
Author(s) -
Elizabeth C. Danielson,
Christopher A. Harle,
Sarah M. Downs,
Laura G. Militello,
Olena Mazurenko
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of opioid management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.331
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 2375-0146
pISSN - 1551-7489
DOI - 10.5055/jom.2021.0684
Subject(s) - medicine , chronic pain , opioid , guideline , discontinuation , thematic analysis , health care , intensive care medicine , family medicine , qualitative research , nursing , psychiatry , social science , receptor , pathology , sociology , economics , economic growth
The 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline for prescribing opioids for chronic pain aimed to assist primary care clinicians in safely and effectively prescribing opioids for chronic noncancer pain. Individual states, payers, and health systems issued similar policies imposing various regulations around opioid prescribing for patients with chronic pain. Experts argued that healthcare organizations and clinicians may be misapplying the federal guideline and subsequent opioid prescribing policies, leading to an inadequate pain management. The objective of this study was to understand how primary care clinicians involve opioid prescribing policies in their treatment decisions and in their conversations with patients with chronic pain.