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Washington was one of the first states to legislate prescribing rules for the treatment of chronic pain, a unique model which relied on the use of a dosage trigger and the necessity to calculate morphine equivalency. Following Washington’s lead, other states and the Centers for Disease Control and...
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A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers updated data on the estimated prevalence of chronic pain in America. The report summarizes conclusions from a 2016 survey conducted in fulfillment of a National Pain...
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The search for a new molecule in the face of the opioid crisis may have taken a major step forward with the recent discovery of a chemical compound, AT-121, that provides analgesia without addictive potential. Mei-Chuan Ko, PhD, professor of physiology and pharmacology at the School of Medicine,...
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Many states have now taken legislative action to limit first-time prescribing of opioid analgesics for acute pain, some with restrictions of as few as 3-days’ supply. Recently, the US Food and Drug Association has engaged the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to...
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In a statement released last week, David Daikh, MD, PhD, president of the American College of Rheumatology, relayed the outcome of a meeting held with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on the topic of proposed changes to Medicare part B coverage of rheumatology treatment. The ACR has...
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Interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs (IPRP) have garnered significant support as an alternative to long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain management, and conclusions from new research published last month by the American Pain Society provides further confirmation of the benefits. But...
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The terms prescribing guidelines and prescribing rules are often used interchangeably although they really have separate meanings. Guidelines, by their nature, are voluntary recommendations. Whereas prescribing rules are mandatory. It’s important for prescribers to be aware of what exactly the rules...
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Taking advantage of a $500 million congressional addition to its base appropriation for FY2018, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a new research initiative that it describes as “…a bold new trans-NIH initiative called Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL). The HEAL initiative...
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The Committee on Rheumatologic Care of the American College of Rheumatology has released a position statement calling for “robust pharmacovigilance” to ensure the safety of medications used to treat rheumatologic conditions. Pharmacovigilance is defined by the Committee as “…the science of detection...
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The Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania is currently working on a variety of fronts to address the issue of opioid overdose risk. CHIBE seeks to combine psychology and economics with clinical expertise to...