One of the many tools available to aid such an assessment is a prescription drug monitoring program, also known as a PDMP. Many people believe PDMPs are relatively new to the medical community but the first PDMP rolled out in 1917 in New York and was designed to track morphine, cocaine, and...
“Will I get addicted?” In the emergency department, I’ve been asked this question many times. It usually gets asked during a conversation about treating chronic (and sometimes acute) pain, and it usually goes something like this:
“Opioids are risky.” This statement will probably be taken at face value by the vast majority of people in the U.S but it is a complex statement despite the minimal word count. Let’s break it down.
Let’s start with a basic tenant: Opioids are risky. One need look no further than the escalating opioid death toll (42,249 in 2016, CDC) to understand this one basic fact. Then again, life in general is a risky endeavor and most of us are exposed to many significant (and a few insignificant)...