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AAOS offers tips during Pain Awareness Month to reduce opioid use, misuse among patients
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September is Pain Awareness Month, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is offering tips on safe disposal of prescription pain medications and guidance about pain relief, according to a press release from the society.
“Orthopedic surgeons, along with other physicians and health care professionals, are working diligently and collectively to reduce the strength and number of opioid pills prescribed for patients, and to change the patient-doctor conversation regarding pain: how pain can be safely managed with non-opioid medications, therapies and coping strategies; and the potential danger for opioid misuse,” David C. Ring, MD, PhD, chairman of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Committee on Patient Safety, said in the release.
The AAOS recently started a prescription safety campaign that includes print, outdoor and radio public service announcements, an information page at OrthoInfo.org/Prescription Safety and an online physician tool kit. The AAOS is providing tips for safe and effective pain relief and for the appropriate way to dispose of prescription pain medications. According to the release, tips included explaining to patients that they should expect pain after surgery or an injury, that patients should have a pain relief plan with their doctor, that opioids should be limited to first hours or days following an injury or surgery, that patients should only take opioids that are prescribed, and that patients should safely store and dispose of opioids.
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