Pain management, Rx opioid mortality, and the CDC

Pain management, prescription opioid mortality, and the CDC: is the devil in the data? by Michael E Schatman & Stephen J Ziegler – Journal of Pain Research – Oct 2017

Though a year old, this article explains the flaws in the CDC opioid prescribing guideline.

Transparency, freedom from bias, and accountability are, in principle, hallmarks of taxpayer-funded institutions. Unfortunately, it seems that at least one institution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), continues to struggle with all three.

What began with a prescribing guideline created in secrecy has now evolved to the use of statistical data and public statements that fail to capture not only the complexity of the problem but also the distinction between licit and illicit opioids and their relationship to the alarming increase in unintentional overdose.