Optimizing Opioid Safety and Efficacy
Course #55142 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
This course will offer an extensive overview of opioids and their use in pain medicine. Opioid analgesic medications can bring substantial relief to patients suffering from pain. The patient population receiving opioid therapy for pain is diverse and exhibits a broad range of behavioral responses to opioids. To provide appropriate treatment of pain, clinicians must understand, identify, and manage these potential responses. This course will cover the various available opioid options for the treatment of pain of varying severity, with an emphasis on appropriate matching of opioid agents to patients.
- INTRODUCTION
- DEFINITIONS
- OPIOID ANALGESIC SAFETY, RISKS, AND BENEFITS: FACTS VERSUS FALLACIES
- EPIDEMIOLOGY OF PAIN
- CONSEQUENCES OF UNTREATED OR UNDERTREATED CHRONIC PAIN
- RISK FACTORS FOR CHRONIC PAIN
- BARRIERS TO ADEQUATE PAIN CARE
- THE ENDOGENOUS OPIOID SYSTEM AND OPIOID ANALGESIC MECHANISMS
- OPIOID ANALGESIC PHARMACOLOGY
- PHARMACOKINETIC FACTORS IN OPIOID ANALGESIC RESPONSE
- CDC GUIDELINES FOR OPIOID PRESCRIBING IN CHRONIC PAIN
- GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ANALGESIC PRESCRIBING
- PATIENT FACTORS AND OPIOID ANALGESIC RESPONSE
- OPIOID SELECTION, INITIATION, AND MANAGEMENT
- OPIOID ANALGESIC SIDE EFFECTS AND MANAGEMENT
- CONCLUSION
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This course is designed for dental professionals involved in the care of patients who may benefit from the use of opioids to address pain.
The purpose of this course is to provide dental professionals with the information necessary to choose the appropriate opioid agents for their patients, with a resultant improvement in patients' quality of life and compliance with prescribed treatments.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Define terms often used in discussion of opioid prescribing.
- Analyze common myths related to opioid analgesic safety.
- Recall the epidemiology of pain.
- Outline the individual and societal impact of undertreated pain.
- Describe risk factors for and comorbidities of chronic pain.
- Evaluate barriers to adequate pain care.
- Describe the endogenous opioid system and effects of opioid analgesia.
- Discuss the classification and properties of the various mu opioid receptor full agonist agents.
- Compare and contrast other types of opioid analgesics and antagonists.
- Identify pharmacokinetic factors in opioid analgesic response.
- Outline the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) guidelines for opioid prescribing for chronic pain.
- Recall other general recommendations for safe and effective long-term opioid use for chronic pain.
- Identify patient factors that affect opioid analgesic response.
- Describe issues that affect choices regarding opioid selection, rotation, and titration.
- Discuss the identification and appropriate treatment of opioid analgesic side effects.
Mark Rose, BS, MA, LP, is a licensed psychologist in the State of Minnesota with a private consulting practice and a medical research analyst with a biomedical communications firm. Earlier healthcare technology assessment work led to medical device and pharmaceutical sector experience in new product development involving cancer ablative devices and pain therapeutics. Along with substantial experience in addiction research, Mr. Rose has contributed to the authorship of numerous papers on CNS, oncology, and other medical disorders. He is the lead author of papers published in peer-reviewed addiction, psychiatry, and pain medicine journals and has written books on prescription opioids and alcoholism published by the Hazelden Foundation. He also serves as an Expert Advisor and Expert Witness to law firms that represent disability claimants or criminal defendants on cases related to chronic pain, psychiatric/substance use disorders, and acute pharmacologic/toxicologic effects. Mr. Rose is on the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis-based International Institute of Anti-Aging Medicine and is a member of several professional organizations.
Contributing faculty, Mark Rose, BS, MA, LP, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Mark J. Szarejko, DDS, FAGD
The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.