The centers for disease control speaks out against Opioid / Opiate Pain Medications by Options Okanagan Treatment Center in Kelowna, British Columbia treating drug addiction and recovery.
Pharmaceutical companies began pushing to get opioids deregulated beginning in the 1990s. Their reasoning behind this was that research at the time showed chronic pain sufferers attributed to less than 1 percent of those who were addicted to opioids. As more and more people began using prescription opioids, the number of addictions and deaths from overdoses has increased. Today, more than 40 deaths occur daily in the United States as a result of opioid abuse. Because of this, the Centers for Disease Control has issued new voluntary guidelines regarding the dispensing of opioid drugs.
The CDC is urging doctors to stop prescribing powerful opiates to patients suffering from chronic pain. The reasoning behind this is that the risks of opiates far outweigh the benefits the opioid drugs offer. The CDC has established dispensing guidelines to morphine-like addictive drugs, including OxyContin and Vicodin. These guidelines are a way to combat the nation’s prescription painkiller addiction epidemic. Those patients who are undergoing cancer treatments and those who are at the end of their lives do not have to follow those guidelines. There may also be other times when physicians deem it necessary to prescribe these types of drugs. The CDC advises that the lowest possible dose and the shortest duration of medication should be prescribed in these conditions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 40 Americans die daily due to prescriptions painkiller overdose. Additionally in 2013, it is estimated that 1.9 million people were addicted or abused prescription opiates. The CDC’s director, Thomas Frieden, said that no other medicine kills as many patients as that of opiates. These medications carry a great risk of addiction and death. Primary care physicians currently prescribe almost half of the opiates in the country. Although doctors are not obligated to follow the recommendations of the CDC, they are hoping that the recommendations will diminish the number of opiate prescriptions written each day.
The federal government is finally admitting that there is a widespread problem of opiate abuse in the United States, as well as Canada. Treating the most common painful conditions with long-term opioid usages is both inappropriate and dangerous. The CDC’s guidelines should help decrease the number of prescriptions written each year by primary care physicians, specialists and other medical practitioners, which in turn should decrease the number of addictions and deaths caused by opioid pain-relieving medications. The medical community has numerous other medications that can relieve pain without the risk of addiction.
Options Okanagan Drug And Alcohol Treatment Centers in Kelowna, Salmon Arm and Vancouver, British Columbia – Men and Women are recovering and healing from Alcohol and Drug Abuse at our treatment center here in the Okanagan right now.
Our unique and distinctive drug treatment program allows men and women to come in from Calgary as well as Edmonton as we offer airport pickup.
Numerous clients come to us from Calgary and Edmonton and other locations in Alberta and even other provinces for Opiate addiction treatment, meth drug treatment, many other drug and alcohol addictions for rehabilitation because of the uniqueness of our treatment center.
Our Treatment Location:
Options Okanagan Opiate Treatment Centers
206 – 478 Bernard Avenue, Kelowna, British Columbia, V1V 2E6
Toll Free Phone Number : 1-855-335-0331