Pharmacist prescribes education as key to curbing opioid abuse
Writing in the latest issue of the journal Current Pain and Headache Reports , Kaye and his co-authors argue that such technologies are no substitute for education. "Education is the foremost strategy," Kaye said. "We must educate primary care providers, surgeons, pharmacists and other health professionals, as well as patients. That education must take place prior to the starting point of opioid therapy -- and it needs to be independent of the pharmaceutical industry." The article, titled "Current State of Opioid Therapy and Abuse," lays out a grim diagnosis and alarming prognosis for opioid misuse and abuse: Opioid misuse increased by 4,680 percent between 1996 and 2011. Opioids were involved in 28,647 deaths in 2014, triple the number in 2000, and represented 61 percent of all drug overdose deaths. More than 90 percent of patients who survive a prescription opioid overdose continue to be prescribed opioids, usually by the same prescriber. Pre...