{"id":3353,"date":"2016-06-28T08:31:32","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T12:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=3353"},"modified":"2016-06-28T08:31:32","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T12:31:32","slug":"doctors-wrestle-with-mixed-messages-when-deciding-whether-to-prescribe-painkillers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=3353","title":{"rendered":"Doctors Wrestle With Mixed Messages When Deciding Whether To Prescribe Painkillers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By Shefali Luthra for Kaiser Health News)<\/p>\n<p>Steve Diaz, an emergency medicine doctor at Augusta\u2019s MaineGeneral Health, says he knows what patients want when they come to him in pain. Drugs. And preferably strong ones.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only thing they think of is, \u2018Do I get a pill?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>And with abuse of prescription painkillers like OxyContin, methadone and Percocet soaring, the instinct, public health experts say, should be to say no. Or at least, not necessarily. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/drugoverdose\/prescribing\/guideline.html\" target=\"_blank\">a new guideline<\/a> this spring, advising doctors to prescribe the highly addictive drugs, known as opioids, in smaller doses and only when truly needed. <a href=\"http:\/\/khn.org\/news\/doctors-wrestle-with-mixed-messages-when-deciding-whether-to-prescribe-painkillers\/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+First+Edition&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=31071430&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9RYLlhuRHJBzYOW19RWdyBa2s3Jh_f4HlV7tP-bpuAC0tCk7NYhN81LBQX0p7o907AqVSbuG97-BI0tWVnpw94__Yp4g&amp;_hsmi=31071430\" target=\"_blank\">Read article here&#8230;..<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: 15px\/1.6 'Open Sans', serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font: 15px\/1.6 'Open Sans', serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-899 \" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png\" alt=\"khn-logo1\" width=\"92\" height=\"48\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-1024x533.png 1024w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-390x205.png 390w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 92px) 100vw, 92px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre><strong>Notice<\/strong>: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Shefali Luthra for Kaiser Health News) Steve Diaz, an emergency medicine doctor at Augusta\u2019s MaineGeneral Health, says he knows<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-health-issues","category-part-dprescription-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3354,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions\/3354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}