Partnering with Patients: Counseling Patients About Non-Opioid Pain Options

With the opioid crisis resulting in up to a 30% increase in overdoses among men and a 24% increase among women from July 2016 through September 2017, it is imperative that health care providers (HCPs), including pharmacists, work with patients to achieve goals that will reverse these destructive trends. When making treatment decisions, HCPs also need to make patients aware of safer, non-opioid alternatives to pain management.

The second installment of this CME Outfitters BriefCase series on addressing the opioid epidemic in our communities focuses on how HCPs can educate their patients about their pain and about nonopioid pain management in order to optimize safe and effective, multimodal treatment plans.

At the end of this CE activity, participants should be able to:
-Apply evidence and guideline recommendations supporting non-opioid pain management to treatment decision-making.
-Educate patients about their pain and non-opioid pain management to optimize safe and effective, multimodal treatment plans.