Opioids Still Prescribed Too Much, New Government Report Says

Patients are still getting too many opioids to treat their acute pain because of inconsistent prescribing guidelines despite a push to significantly lower pain pill prescribing in the U.S., an FDA-sponsored report released Dec. 19 found.

Acute pain is one that a patient feels for no longer than 90 days. Although there’s a bevy of opioid prescribing guidelines floating around, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found a lot of them don’t have rigorous evidence to back them up. That’s an issue the federal government has tried to rectify in the last few years, but there’s still a ...