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Panel: Painkiller training should be required for physicians

 
Published May 5, 2016

WASHINGTON — Doctors who prescribe painkillers should be required to undergo training aimed at reducing misuse and abuse of the medications, according to federal health experts, though they acknowledge the challenge of putting such a mandate in place.

The group of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously Wednesday that the agency should change its risk-management programs for opioid painkillers, highly addictive medications at the center of a national epidemic of addiction and abuse.

Panelists said the risk plans should apply to all prescription painkillers, including immediate-release drugs like Vicodin and Percocet. Currently, the measures only apply to long-acting drugs like OxyContin, which slowly release their ingredients over 12 hours or more.

It's the second time since 2010 that an FDA panel has recommended expanding painkiller-safety measures and mandating training for doctors. But the training plans instituted about four years ago are voluntary, and FDA figures show that fewer than half of the doctors targeted by the effort have completed the training.

Panelists said a more vigorous response is needed.

"If we keep it voluntary we're never going to get many people trained," said Michael Fry, a pharmacist with Providence Health system in Oregon.

But how to require some 1.5 million prescribers across the United States to take hours-long classes about responsible opioid prescribing remains unclear.