Make non-opioid pain therapy more widely available to fight opioid crisis

Inadequate access to non-opioid pain management therapies leaves providers without the full set of tools to provide a non-addictive option to millions of patients, writes clinical pharmacist Sterling Elliott. (stock.adobe.com)

In Dr. Elisha Peterson’s recent letter to the editor, she asserts that inadequate pain management training for physicians in medical school worsens the opioid addiction crisis.

While any gap in training leaves physicians without the necessary experience to best care for patients in pain, we must also acknowledge that inadequate access to non-opioid pain management therapies leaves providers without the full set of tools to provide a non-addictive option to the millions of patients managing acute pain after an outpatient surgical procedure each year.