Chronic pain is a major national public health problem, which is estimated to affect more than 100 million people in the United States. Opioids are effective powerful analgesics for many types of pain. At the same time, our nation is facing an opioid crisis that has seen a significant rise of overdose deaths associated with prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids in the past two decades.
As the COVID-19 global pandemic continues, so does the nation’s opioid epidemic. Pain management is a comprehensive, patient-centered process including medications, psychosocial counseling, and non-pharmacological treatments when appropriate. The purpose of this webinar is to recognize that public, patient, and provider education is critical to the delivery of effective, patient-centered pain management and is necessary for optimizing patient outcomes, promoting appropriate use of pain medication, and reducing the risk associated with prescription opioids.
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