Physicians who understand the nature of addiction are crucial in the fight against prescription opioid abuse. Unfortunately, a new survey indicates that many doctors have misconceptions about current opioids on the market and lack an understanding of opioid abuse, PsychCentral reports. The findings come from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 primary care physicians.
The new survey, conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, showed that almost half of internists, family physicians and general practitioners believe that abuse-deterrent pills are less addictive than traditional opioid medications. The researchers contend that this error in reasoning may be contributing to the prescription opioid epidemic plaguing the country.
While abuse-deterrent formulations may make it more difficult for addicts to tamper with pills to be used in unintended ways, such drugs are in no way less addictive than their forerunners.
“Physicians and patients may mistakenly view these medicines as safe in one form and dangerous in another, but these products are addictive no matter how you take them,” study leader G. Caleb Alexander, MD, said in a news release. “If doctors and patients fail to understand this, they may believe opioids are safer than is actually the case and prescribe them more readily than they should.”
The research showed that one-third of the physicians thought that the majority of prescription drug abuse occurs by means of injecting or snorting the medications, rather than orally, according to the article. However, a number of studies show that most prescription drug abuse occurs via oral use.
“Doctors continue to overestimate the effectiveness of prescription pain medications and underestimate their risks, and that’s why we are facing such a public health crisis,” Alexander said.
The findings were published in the Clinical Journal of Pain.
