DEA Gives Docs Guidelines on Prescribing Painkillers August 13, 2004
News Summary
New guidelines written by pain specialists in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are designed to help doctors prescribe narcotics like Oxycontin and morphine without fear of arrest, the Associated Press reported Aug. 12."There is unwarranted fear that doctors who treat pain aggressively are singled out," said Patricia Good, the DEA's drug-diversion chief.
Many doctors have been unwilling to prescribe the tightly regulated painkillers because they could be misused, putting physicians at risk for arrest in the government's crackdown of prescribed narcotic painkillers.
"In some ways, pain management and the use of pain medications has become a crime story when it really should be a healthcare story," said guidelines co-author David Joranson, pain-policy director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School.
The guidelines specifically explain how to prescribe the powerful painkillers. The DEA also plans to distribute the guidelines to agents and prosecutors to assist them in differentiating between aggressive pain management and drug diversion.
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