ACOEM Wants Greater Focus on Functional Improvement in Opioid Treatment

While many recent efforts to combat the opioid crisis have focused on restricting initial prescriptions for the painkillers, others are attacking the issue from the angle of opioid use by chronic pain patients. In a recent letter to federal officials, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has emphasized that using opioids for longer-term treatment of pain is appropriate only if the patient is experiencing an improvement in function. Assessing pain alone is not enough, ACOEM President Dr. Charles Yarborough wrote. “Assessment of patient function is the main...