The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday published the final version of its newly revised advice about prescribing opioids for pain, which aims to ameliorate the damage done by the guidelines it issued in 2016. The new guidelines, which are similar to the draft that the CDC published in February, emphasize individualized treatment and include warnings against "rigid standards," "rapid tapers," "abrupt opioid discontinuation," and "patient abandonment," which give you a sense of the disastrous impact that the 2016 version had on patient care.
The CDC blames that fiasco on "misapplication" of its advice by clinicians, pharmacists, insurers, regulators, and legislators. Because all those people misunderstood what the CDC was recommending, it says, patients across the country experienced "untreated and undertreated pain, serious withdrawal symptoms, worsening pain outcomes, psychological distress, overdose, and suicidal ideation and behavior."
