Nora Volkow from the National Institute on Drug Abuse: Addressing Issues in Safely Prescribing Opioids

The opioid epidemic is clearly a growing problem in the medical community. However, there are concerns that there is so much concern about prescribing opioids that they are not being given who can benefit most from them.

Nora D. Volkow, MD, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse discussed this and other issues during an interview with Md Magazine during the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Atlanta. Volkow said there are many challenges in this issue including properly training doctors on how to use best practices for safely prescribing opioids. Even with new guidelines recently introduced but the CDC Volkow said there are still doctors who have questions about how to handle this issue in their practice.

Speaking at a conference with some of the leading mental health professionals around the world Volkow said psychiatrists can play a large role in reversing the opioid epidemic and help their patients better manage their pain through a variety of techniques. She also discussed ways to improve training for doctors across the medical spectrum to help them feel more comfortable discussing this issue with their patients and providing the best care possible.