As a pain specialist, I may have caused more harm by underprescribing opioids (12 April 2022)

Summary

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published prescribing guidelines for opioids. Though intended to encourage best practices in opioid prescribing, these guidelines fueled providers’ fears of opioids and led to many clinicians abandoning patients who relied on opioids for pain relief.

In this article, Antje M. Barreveld reflects on the harms he may have caused by underprescribing these drugs, not overprescribing them.