Dr Jeffrey Gudin Explains Why Opioid Prescribing Requires Careful Balance of Patient Needs

Healthcare providers must think about the entire home environment their patient lives in when prescribing opioids, said Jeffrey Gudin, MD, director of Pain Management and Palliative Care at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

Transcript

How can healthcare providers balance the needs of patients with chronic pain while being mindful of the risks of opioid use disorder?

Well, balancing the needs of patients while being mindful for opioid use disorder is just that, balance. You can’t go out there with blinders on. You have to think that every patient is at risk and if your patient is not at risk, perhaps there someone in their household or immediate environment that’s at risk and the bottle of medications that you prescribe may be desirable to others. So we’re now thinking not just about the patient sitting in front of us but about the medical home, about the environment to which we’re going to prescribe in and I think that’s why being more cautious about how we prescribe opioids, who we prescribe them to, and selecting the right kind of medicine, like we have available abuse deterrent opioid formulations. We may be able to help shift the balance towards patients and away from abuse.