Doctors should discuss alternatives to address pain

Like many moms across this country, my son became addicted to opioid pain relievers after they were prescribed to him to treat a sports injury. Had someone told me about the addictive qualities of the medicine Steven was prescribed, I would have known to look for alternatives.

Too many parents are unaware their children are being prescribed highly addictive drugs. A recent national survey done by the Hazeldon Betty Ford Foundation confirms what I’ve learned talking with other parents: 6-in-10 doctors prescribe opioid painkillers without telling patients that they can be addictive.

To fix this problem, I pushed for a new law in New Jersey, since adopted by Rhode Island and supported in the recommendations of the National Opioid Commission. It requires that a prescriber inform patients (or the parents of a minor child) about the potential addictive qualities of the opioids they are providing.

The prescriber is also responsible, when appropriate, to provide non-opiate alternatives to address both acute and chronic pain.

Patients need to be informed of their options and how to watch for signs of addiction. In the case of parents, this commonsense conversation gives them the information they need to protect their teenagers, whose developing brains are particularly vulnerable.

It is critical that doctors provide this same notice of addiction risks to all patients and parents throughout the nation. The over-prescribing of opioid-based pain relievers, such as Oxycodone and Vicadin, is the primary cause of today’s epidemic of opiate addiction, both to opioid-based painkillers and their illegal street cousin, heroin.

More than 200 million prescriptions for opioid-based painkillers are written each year in the United States.

“In 2015, the amount of opioids prescribed in the U.S. was enough for every American to be medicated around the clock for three weeks,” writes the National Opioid Commission. As David Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said, “The mantra was prescribe until patients achieve pain relief.”

A report on the opioid epidemic from John Hopkins University School of Public Health strongly recommends tightening up prescribing practices: “Doctors often prescribe pain medications in quantities and for conditions that are excessive, and in many cases, beyond the evidence base.”

Connecticut is further ahead of most states in putting preventive measures in place, including pill limits, mandatory continuing education for prescribers, and the requirement for a conversation between prescriber and patient about addiction risks.

However, more information about alternative pain relief is critical to curbing the epidemic.

I urge all state legislators and governors to enact the Patient Notification and Conversation law that New Jersey and Rhode Island recently passed and to help us work for national adoption. I only wish this law was in effect when Steven was first prescribed opioids for his injury.