FDA Seeks Opioid Guidelines Tailored to Specific Conditions

Current federal guidelines discourage the use of opioids for treating acute pain beyond three to seven days. But what if the guidelines were more specific, with prescribing recommendations for pain resulting from a bone fracture, a knee surgery or a spinal fusion — all based on medical evidence for those conditions? That seems to be the idea behind an announcement Wednesday by U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. Gottlieb said the FDA had awarded a contract to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to “help advance the...