An opioid abuse epidemic now plagues US healthcare. It was caused, in part, by overzealous advocacy for controlling chronic pain resulting in overuse of narcotics. There are now 2 million Americans addicted to opioids. The approach for treating chronic pain must change. In this podcast, we summarize recent CDC guidelines for the proper use of opioids for treating chronic pain.

Articles discussed in this episode:

• CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain— United States, 2016,
• The CDC Guideline on Opioid Prescribing: Rising to the Challenge (Yngvild Olsen, MD, MPH),
• The DSM-V definition for opioid use disorder and 11 point checklist