WASHINGTON —
Prescription painkillers should not be a first choice for treating common ailments such as back pain and arthritis, according to new federal guidelines designed to reshape how doctors prescribe drugs such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
Amid an epidemic of addiction and abuse tied to these powerful opioid drugs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging primary care doctors to try physical therapy, exercise and over-the-counter pain medications before turning to painkillers for chronic pain. Opioid drugs include medications such as morphine and oxycodone, as well as illegal narcotics such as heroin.
The new recommendations — which doctors do not have to follow — represent an effort to reverse nearly two decades of rising painkiller use, which public health officials blame for a more-than-fourfold increase in overdose deaths tied to the drugs. In 2014, U.S. doctors wrote nearly 200 million prescriptions for opioid painkillers, while deaths linked to the drugs climbed to roughly 19,000 — the highest number on record.
“We’re trying to chart a safer and more effective course for dealing with chronic pain,” CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said in an interview with The Associated Press.
More than 40 Americans die every day from painkiller overdoses, a staggering rate that Frieden said is “doctor driven.”
Under the new guidelines, doctors would prescribe painkillers only after considering non-addictive pain relievers, behavioral changes and other options.
