In 2017, Dr. Hoffer co-authored a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report (funded by the FDA) entitled: Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use. This consensus committee provided the FDA with the most up-to-date data on the opioid crisis, pain management science, and made recommendations on how pain medications should be evaluated. The following links are to news about that report.
Both Urgency and Balance Needed in Addressing Opioid Epidemic
The JAMA Network (Opinion piece by Richard J. Bonnie, Aaron S. Kesselheim, and David J. Clark)
Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic, a report by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, envisions a path leading to reduced reliance on opioids for chronic pain while counseling against arbitrary regulatory restriction of responsible prescribing for patients whose pain has not been alleviated by alternative treatments.
Half a million Medicare recipients were prescribed too many opioid drugs last year
The Washington Post
Later Thursday, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine predicted that it would take years to undo the harms of the prescription and illegal opioid crises. In a new report on pain management and the opioid epidemic, a panel of experts urged the Food and Drug Administration to begin considering the public health implications of new opioid medications and conduct a full review of the safety and effectiveness of all opioids currently on the market.
National Academies: Here’s What FDA Should Do on Opioids
MedPage Today
The FDA should take a public health approach to approving new opioids, and should review all opioids that are currently on the market to ensure that the drugs are meeting public health standards, according to a new report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine that the FDA commissioned more than a year ago.
New ‘action plan’ released for addressing opioid epidemic
Healio
The issue of opioid abuse will take a long-term, concentrated effort from the FDA, other federal agencies, state and local governments, and health-related professionals and organizations to sufficiently address, according to the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.
US Opioid Policies Need Major Overhaul, NASEM Says
Medscape (Subscription)
A National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) panel is calling on regulators to overhaul opioid policies and give more weight to societal risks and benefits when approving or recalling opioid drugs, noting that some of these policies meant to curb the opioid epidemic may actually be driving illicit drug use.
Panel Recommends FDA Reconsider Approach In Approving Opioid Painkillers
WOSU
A major new study on the opioid epidemic that has swept through Ohio and much of the rest of the country says the painkillers that triggered the crisis likely never should have been prescribed for many chronic pains. David Clark directs a Veterans Affairs Pain Clinic in California and is one of the 18 researchers who participated the study for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He says opioids are undeniably beneficial for advanced stages of cancer, severe injuries and for end-of-life treatments:
Strategies to Curb the Opioid Epidemic: A National Academies Report
Clinical Pain Advisor
On July 13, 2017, the Board on Health Sciences Policy of the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) issued a report titled “Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use.”
Opioid crisis an urgent public health threat, but panel outlines steps that could curb epidemic
Fierce Healthcare
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released a report Thursday that outlines an action plan that the Food and Drug Administration, other federal agencies, state and local governments and healthcare organizations must take in response to the opioid crisis.