The Food and Drug Administration rejected their own expert panel's recommendation that medical doctors be required to have special training before they could prescribe long-acting narcotic painkillers that can lead to addiction.
The AMA has fought this measure, saying it would be too burdensome for their members to be required to be trained before prescribing these drugs. Given the epidemic of addiction that's being caused by inappropriate prescription patterns, and given that medical doctors are required to get a certain number of Continuing Education Units (CEU) annually to maintain their licenses anyway, it's strange that this would be something so distasteful to both the FDA and AMA.
I have been reading a lot about ceus. I just read that ceus for nurses, doctors, real estate agents and many more professions were required. I think its a great idea and a great way to keep their certificates, licenses or practices current and up to date. I also think it would be great for medical doctors to get special training before they could prescribe long-acting narcotic painkillers. Way to many people are getting addicted to medication that doctors are prescribing. Great post!!
ReplyDelete