Making Healthcare Safer IV: Opioid Stewardship

Making Healthcare Safer IV: Opioid Stewardship: The treatment of pain and suffering is fundamental to high-quality healthcare, and opioids are often an essential medicine for acute, severe pain. However, opioids also carry well known risks, including for overdose, misuse, and opioid use disorder. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain to promote more effective and safe opioid use. In 2022, the CDC released an update to those guidelines, noting a concern that previous guidance had been misapplied, leading to unintended patient harm including untreated or undertreated pain and abrupt tapering of opioids causing withdrawal, distress, and suicidal ideation. Thus, any approach to mitigate risks of prescribed or ordered opioids should be balanced against any unintended harms.