After the findings of a national physician survey displayed strong support for policies intended to end the proliferation of America's opioid addiction, the president of the American Medical Association, Steven J. Stack, MD, delivered a call to action to the country's current and future physicians.
The survey results are a ringing endorsement of existing strategies and recommendations to end the nation's opioid epidemic. Prescription drug monitoring programs received a resounding 87 percent approval from surveyed physicians. Sixty-seven percent of respondents completed continuing medical education on safe opioid prescription. Fifty-five percent were educated in pain management with opioid alternatives.
In light of these findings, Dr. Stack pressed for physicians to do more in his call to action. He called for mass registration and use of the prescription drug monitoring programs, for improvement in training and education in regards to safe prescribing, for co-prescription of the overdose reversal drug naloxone and training for medication-assistance treatment for substance use disorders.
Finally, Dr. Stack asks for compassion: "Patients in pain deserve care and compassion, not judgment... As physicians, we are often under pressure to 'satisfy a patient's pain.' Sometimes this requires prescribing an opioid. But caring also means sometimes saying no and recommending an alternative course of treatment — no matter how difficult that may be."
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