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New state laws aim to avert opioid overdose deaths
Source: www.ama-assn.org

Responding to the rise in opioid overdoses, state legislatures are acting to increase the availability of naloxone, a receptor antagonist that potentially can prevent opioid overdose deaths. The AMA has been urging adoption of these laws as part of a larger effort to address overdoses and deaths related to prescription painkillers.

California last month joined Colorado, New Jersey and Oklahoma in the vanguard of states making it easier for health care professionals to prescribe, dispense and distribute naloxone. California’s law, among other things, extends professional, civil and criminal liability protections to physicians and other qualified health care professionals who make naloxone available to a person at risk of an opioid-related overdose or a family member, friend or other person in a position to assist a person at risk of an opioid-related overdose. 

The AMA supported the California legislation and also is advocating, alongside the Wisconsin Medical Society, for passage of a similar bill being considered in Madison. 

Naloxone poses no potential for abuse and can be administered easily, including through a nasal spray. It also has been proven to save lives. Since the first opioid overdose prevention program began distributing naloxone in 1996, programs have reported more than 10,000 overdose reversals, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.

At the AMA Interim Meeting last week, the AMA House of Delegates adopted four new policies related to medication availability and use. One policy specifically addresses opioid overdoses and deaths. Under this policy, the AMA will collaborate with other medical associations to develop best practices for how opioids are used in pain management. The policy also calls on the CDC to gather more comprehensive data on unintentional opioid poisonings and deaths, and to use this information as a basis for developing solutions. Another newly adopted policy requests that the Joint Commission review and evaluate its pain management accreditation standard.

The latest policies build on the AMA’s ongoing work in combating prescription drug overdoses, which statistics show is an increasingly urgent public health issue. The number of people seeking treatment for prescription painkiller addiction has increased six fold in the last decade, and opioid analgesics represent a significant risk. Prescription opioids were involved in about 43 percent of the nation’s 38,000 annual drug overdose deaths, according to a data analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued new labeling requirements for extended-release and long-acting opioids. These requirements are intended to provide more specific warnings and guidelines for both consumers and physicians, while giving physicians the necessary discretion to determine the most effective daily dose and duration of use for each patient. Register for an AMA webinar at 1 p.m. Eastern time Dec. 11 to learn more about the labeling changes and the clinical implications