Framing Opioid Prescribing Guidelines for Acute Pain

The opioid overdose epidemic combined with the need to reduce the burden of acute pain poses a public health challenge. To address how evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for prescribing opioids for acute pain might help meet this challenge, Framing Opioid Prescribing Guidelines for Acute Pain: Developing the Evidence develops a framework to evaluate existing clinical practice guidelines for prescribing opioids for acute pain indications, recommends indications for which new evidence-based guidelines should be developed, and recommends a future research agenda to inform and enable specialty organizations to develop and disseminate evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for prescribing opioids to treat acute pain indications. The recommendations of this study will assist professional societies, health care organizations, and local, state, and national agencies to develop clinical practice guidelines for opioid prescribing for acute pain. Such a framework could inform the development of opioid prescribing guidelines and ensure systematic and standardized methods for evaluating evidence, translating knowledge, and formulating recommendations for practice. Table of Contents Front Matter Summary 1 Introduction 2 Managing Acute Pain 3 Development and Use of Clinical Practice Guidelines 4 Framework for Developing Clinical Practice Guidelines 5 Identifying and Prioritizing Indications for Clinical Practice Guidelines 6 Evaluating Clinical Practice Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Acute Pain 7 The Path Forward Appendix A: Committee Biographical Sketches Appendix B: Literature Search Strategies Appendix C: Public Session Agendas