The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is developing an opioid prescribing guideline to help primary care providers offer safer, more effective care for patients with chronic pain and help reduce misuse, abuse and overdose from these drugs. The guideline will provide recommendations to primary care providers about the appropriate prescribing of opioid pain medications to improve pain management and patient safety. Recommendations focus on the use of opioids in treating chronic pain (i.e., pain lasting longer than three months or past the time of normal tissue healing). The guideline is not intended for patients who are in active cancer treatment, palliative care, or end-of-life care.
CDC’s draft Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, 2016 is now available at www.Regulations.gov for review and comment. The public comment period opened Dec. 14, 2015 and closes Jan. 13, 2016. Please submit all comments and feedback at www.Regulations.gov. Enter the docket number (CDC-2015-0112) to access the docket.
CDC will also convene the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC), a federal advisory committee, to review the draft guideline. At a public conference call on January 7, 2016, CDC will ask the BSC to appoint a workgroup to review the draft guideline and comments received on the guideline, and present recommendations about the guideline to the BSC.
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