APhA comments on proposed updates to CDC’s clinical practice guideline for prescribing opioids

Pharmacists are important providers on the patient’s health care team and play a critical role in the use of medications for the treatment of acute, subacute, and chronic pain. Accordingly, APhA submitted comments on CDC’s proposed 2022 update to the 2016 opioid prescribing guideline

• Supporting CDC’s clarification of what the proposed guideline “is” (e.g., a clinical tool for clinicians), and what it “is not” (e.g., an inflexible standard of care or applicable to sickle cell disease related pain, cancer pain, palliative care or end-of-life care), which will be helpful in application of the guideline once released.
• Supporting the expanded scope of the proposed guideline to include acute, subacute, and chronic pain, including considerations for managing risks of opioids and other therapies.
• Encouraging CDC to collaborate with other agencies including CMS and external stakeholders to provide evidence-based information and highlight gaps in access to care and coverage in an effort to mainstream multimodal, multidisciplinary pain care services.