Opioid crisis calls for multipronged solution

By Gail Cawkwell

Wednesday, May 31, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Today’s opioid crisis is one of the nation’s top public health priorities, wreaking havoc on families and individuals struggling with addiction. A new documentary from HBO, “Warning: This Drug May Kill You,” conveys the profound effect opioid addiction is having on our nation and reminds us that it is a complex societal problem that can happen to anyone.

The documentary reaffirms the need for companies that develop, make and distribute opioid pain medicines to combat this crisis.

The community at large — patients, policymakers, health care providers, law enforcement and other stakeholders including prescription drug manufacturers — all have important roles to play in addressing this crisis. Some of these roles include writing fewer prescriptions, prescribing with greater caution, expanding the use of naloxone to treat opioid overdoses and increasing access to medication-assisted treatment.

Purdue Pharma has been advocating for and working toward these goals, but we recognize more work is needed and we are committed to doing more.

We should all work together to reduce abuse, overdose and addiction to opioids while preserving the ability for carefully selected patients to receive appropriate treatment. As we work toward these goals, we all must:

• Ensure health care professionals are fully educated about the risks and benefits of opioid therapy and appropriate opioid prescribing.

• Inform patients of the potential harms of taking opioids, and that they should be taken only after all other therapies are shown to be inadequate.

• Encourage use of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Opioid Prescribing Guideline.

• Expand access to abuse-deterrent formulations to discourage abuse.

• Ensure effective use of prescription drug monitoring programs.

• Limit the duration of initial opioid prescriptions.

Purdue Pharma is focused on addressing this crisis, and it is collaborating with a diverse group of stakeholders on these complex issues. It has led the industry in developing abuse-deterrent technology and advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs.

It has also distributed the “CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain” and provided a grant to the National Sheriffs’ Association to support the use of naloxone. We want to ensure our opioid pain medicines are only prescribed by the right doctor, for the right patient, at the right dose and for the right duration.

“Warning: This Drug May Kill You” reminds us how much more work remains for all of us who touch this issue. I’m hopeful that this documentary will increase awareness of the need for safe prescribing and use of opioids.

Gail Cawkwell is the chief medical officer at Purdue Pharma. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.