Doctors urged to say 'no' to opioid requests

Patients in Pennsylvania should be prepared to hear the word “no” if they ask their physician to prescribe an opioid painkiller.

by Sam Wood

Published May 18, 2016, 8:46 a.m. ET

Patients in Pennsylvania should be prepared to hear the word "no" if they ask their physician to prescribe an opioid painkiller.

Doctors are often pressured by patients in pain to prescribe powerful narcotics. But recommending an alternative treatment, no matter how difficult that might be, may be a better course of action, according to Dr. Scott Shapiro, the president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society.

Shapiro was one of several physicians who gathered in Harrisburg Tuesday to launch a new program that takes aim at the state-wide, and national, opioid epidemic with an internet advertising and social media campaign. The initiative is designed to prepare doctors for a prescription drug monitoring system that will be operating by the end of the year.

"An opioid is not a magic bullet for pain," Shapiro said. "The patient needs to understand that. It's a good tool in the toolbox, but it's not a one size fits all solution."

The society is asking physicians to refamiliarize themselves with opioid prescription guidelines; learn to identify red flags that may signal a patient with an addiction; and take a continuing medical education class on how to use the new monitoring system when it gets activated.

Americans make up only 4.6 percent of the world's population, Shapiro said, but consume 80 percent of the opioid supply.

In Pennsylvania, 10.4 million prescriptions for opioid medicines were filled by patients last year, or nearly one prescription for every citizen in the state.

"Pennsylvania is known as the 'State of Independence,' but when it comes to opioids, it has become the 'State of Dependence'," Shapiro said. "We rely too heavily on using opioids for pain."

According to the CDC, the Keystone State ranks No. 1 in overdose deaths for males 12 to 24.

Nationally, overdose deaths exceed car crash fatalities, according to the DEA.

The good news, according to the society, is the total number of prescriptions for opioids has declined in Pennsylvania and across the nation for two consecutive years.