Alternatives to Opioids

Course overview

As a result of the past 30 years of miseducation, aggressive marketing of highly addictive medications and savvy drug dealers, we are now in the middle of an opioid epidemic. When we look back, we see that there was a sharp increase in opioid prescribing from 1999-2010, which correlates with the beginning of the rise in opioid-related deaths. In this course, we will present an overview of the opioid epidemic, including alternatives to opioids through implementation of the ALTO Program ? or Alternative to Opioids Program. The program identifies 5 conditions in which non-opioid medications and modalities have been found to be as effective for the management of certain painful conditions when compared to opioids. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: describe the current opioid epidemic; appraise evidence-based non-opioid alternatives for acute pain management; and apply an opioid-sparing algorithm for the treatment of acute migraine headache.