Pennsylvania Task Force Releases Voluntary Opioid Prescription Guidelines

The Safe and Effective Prescribing Practices and Pain Management task force has created voluntary prescribing guidelines for the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain, under the direction of Governor Tom Corbett. Included in the guidelines are recommendations that chronic pain is best treated using an interdisciplinary, multi-modal approach, and that patients should be carefully monitored for aberrant drug-related behaviors. These voluntary guidelines are intended to help health care providers improve patient outcomes when providing opioid treatment. The Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) has adopted the guidelines in response to the “growing epidemic of opioid abuse,” as described in a PAMED press release.