Tennessee Controlled Substance Prescribing Practices, Part 1

Course overview

Healthcare providers face many difficulties when prescribing controlled substances for chronic pain and other medical conditions. Timely and appropriate treatment of pain can improve function and quality of life for patients. However, commonly prescribed medications such as opiates pose the risk of addiction and other adverse outcomes. The pressure to treat patient's symptoms aggressively, coupled with current public health problems such as rising drug overdose rates, create a major dilemma for healthcare providers. Determining which patients could benefit from prescribed controlled substances and which patients could be harmed by taking these medications is not always easy. Discussing recent Tennessee state guidelines and evidence-based literature evaluating safe prescribing practices can be very beneficial to both healthcare providers and patients.