Prescribing Opioids

Provides recommendations for safer and more effective prescribing of opioids for chronic pain in patients 18 and older in outpatient settings outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care.

Provides a module to raise physician awareness about prescription opioid-related morbidity and mortality, factors that influence opioid-related harm, and steps that can be taken to promote the safe use of opioids.

Uses the principles of health literacy and a multimodal, team-based approach to promote the appropriate, safe, and effective use of opioids to manage chronic pain. Allows participants to assume the role of four playable characters who make decisions about preventing opioid-related adverse events.

Allows medical students and other health professionals to use a test-and-teach module to practice their clinical skills. Describes the prevalence of prescription opioid abuse in the United States and the skills and tools clinicians can use to screen for and prevent abuse in patients with pain.

Offers continuing medical education/continuing nursing education activities, which help providers learn to safely and effectively manage patients with chronic pain, when appropriate, with opioid analgesics.

Provides a comprehensive array of services, support, resources, and strategies to PDMPs, Federal partners, and other stakeholders to further the efforts and effectiveness of PDMPs in combating the misuse, abuse, and diversion of prescription drugs.

This is a fact sheet for the OpiSafe website, which provides support for opioid prescribers by performing risk stratification for each patient on the basis of morphine-equivalent dosing ranges, pain and function scores, opioid misuse risk scores, and automated prescription drug monitoring program checks.

Shows State-level geographic comparisons of de-identified Medicaid opioid prescriptions filled within the United States. The mapping tool is interactive and presents Medicaid opioid prescribing rates for 2016 as well as the change in opioid prescribing rates from 2013 to 2016.