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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its prescribing guidelines to give physicians and other clinicians more discretion in using opioids to treat acute, subacute, and chronic pain in most adult patients.

The “CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain” was published Nov. 4 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It replaces the CDC’s 2016 guidance for treating chronic pain, which many incorrectly interpreted as imposing strict dose and duration limits.

In its introduction, the CDC notes that the guidelines contain 12 voluntary recommendations across four areas: Determining whether to initiate opioids for pain; selecting opioids and determining opioid dosages; deciding duration of initial opioid prescription and conducting follow-up; and assessing risk and addressing potential harms of opioid use.

The CDC also identifies five guiding principles for implementing the new recommendations: the appropriate treatment of pain; flexibility to meet the care needs and clinical circumstances of each patient; a multimodal and multidisciplinary approach to pain management; avoiding misapplication of the clinical practice guideline beyond its intended use; and vigilance in attending to health inequities and ensuring access to appropriate, affordable, diversified, coordinated and effective nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic pain treatment for all persons.

Learn more at the links below.

CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain, 2022 >> 

CDC COCA call >>

NEJM Perspective: Prescribing Opioids for Pain — The New CDC Clinical Practice Guideline >>

ISMA Resources for Prescribing Controlled Substances >>