Opiod Overdose is the Focus of AMA/CDC Education Effort

Both the federal government and organized medicine announced moves this week aimed at attacking the opioid addiction and overdose problems.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that patients in U.S. addiction treatment programs will no longer have to wait a year to be eligible for therapy with buprenorphine (Suboxone).

And next Wednesday, the American Medical Association and the CDC will host a joint webinar on unintentional opioid overdose.

The webinar is the second in a series on responsible opioid prescribing in the wake of what the federal government has deemed an "epidemic" of addiction to prescription opioids.

The free webinar will highlight trends in unintentional overdoses and deaths from opioids, along with risk factors that increase the likelihood of accidental overdose.

Another objective is to analyze public policy and clinical practices that help combat irresponsible opioid prescribing, according to a statement from the AMA.


Speakers from the CDC -- including Len Paulozzi, MD, and Christopher Jones, PharmD -- will "provide an overview of the epidemiology of prescription drug overdoses and deaths and summarize potential risk factors for overdoses." They'll also talk about the CDC's public health response thus far.

"Prescription drug abuse is a serious epidemic that cannot be ignored, and any action we take to prevent it must ensure that patients who are suffering from chronic pain get the treatment they need," Jeremy Lazarus, MD, president of the AMA, said in the statement.

The Alliance of Community Health Plans released a report on Wednesday that outlined tactics used by many health plans to curb abuse while ensuring patients who need prescription opioids to manage pain receive them.

Healthcare professionals can register for the AMA/CDC webinar at the AMA website.

Source: Medpage