PEDIATRIC ANESTHESIA and PAIN MEDICINE

Four Principles to Guide the National Response to the Opioid Crisis Rae Brown M.D. In the past five years, much has been made of the high rate of mortality and addiction that has ensued from the wide availability of prescription and illicit opioids. The states, with meager resources, have responded with increasing calls to the federal government for more money for more programs. Some of these programs have been effective but the distribution of efficacy is not national in scope. Almost every state has some form of a system that allows physicians and other providers to determine whether patients are receiving opioids from multiple sources, or have many concurrent prescriptions from different doctors. Some in the scientific community believe that these programs have been effective in reducing the number of prescriptions for opioids. The best available theory being that reduced exposure to opioids will decrease mortality and addiction rates. The federal government has resp