20 Miss. Code R. § 2-I
There is insufficient data to show the long-term use of opioids effectively treats chronic non-malignant pain i. Chronic pain has been variably defined but is defined within this guideline as pain that typically lasts more than three months or past the time of normal tissue healing.
There is sufficient data to show opioid pain medication use presents serious risks, including overdose and opioid use disorder. Nevertheless, opiates are commonly prescribed for pain. An estimated 20% of patients presenting to physicians' offices with non-cancer pain symptoms or a pain-related diagnosis receive an opioid prescription ii. In 2012, 259 million prescriptions for opioids were written in the United States, enough for every adult in the United States to have a bottle of pills iii. And rates of opioid prescribing vary greatly across states in ways that cannot be explained by the underlying health status of the population. iv
The use of prescription opioids has risen significantly in the last fifteen years, more so for family physicians, general practice physicians, and internal medicine physicians, compared with other specialties v. As the number of opioid prescriptions for chronic pain have increased, so has the incidence of addiction. From 1999 to 2014, more than 165,000 persons died from overdoses related to opioid pain medications in the United States vi. A recent study of patients B ages 15 to 64 who received opioids for chronic noncancerous pain and were followed for up to 13 years B revealed that 1 in 550 patients died from opioid-related overdose at a median of 2.6 years from their first prescription. One in 32 patients who escalated opioid dosage greater than 200-morphine-mg equivalence died from opioid-related overdose vii.
Opioids have also been associated with increased duration of disability, even when adjusted for injury severity in injured workers with back pain viii.
20 Miss. Code. R. § 2-I