CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain, 2022: Resources for Decision-Makers
July 28, 2023
In 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the updated Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain (2022 Clinical Practice Guideline). These educational resources, developed by ASTHO with support from CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, aim to enhance decision-makers’ understanding of the scope and purpose of the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline.
Summary of Updates
The 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline updates and replaces the 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, leveraging new data to provide evidence-based recommendations for prescribing opioid pain medication for acute, subacute, and chronic pain. This resource summarizes what’s new within the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline.
What It Is vs. What It's Not
The 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline aims to inform patient-centered decision-making between patients and clinicians. The recommendations are not intended to be implemented as absolute limits for policy or practice across populations by organizations, healthcare systems, or government entities. This resource is intended to increase understanding of the intended use of the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline.
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Key Messages for Decision-Makers
The 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline provides voluntary recommendations for clinicians that are intended to be flexible to support, not supplant, individualized patient-centered care. This resource summarizes the purpose and audience of the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline and why and how it was developed.
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Further Considerations for Decision-Makers
Decision-makers, including legislators, licensing boards, payers, and other regulatory bodies, have an opportunity to examine current laws, regulations, and policies and ensure that they reflect and provide flexibility for clinicians to address the multiple complexities and nuances of individualized patient care for patients, as discussed in the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline’s guiding principles and recommendations. This resource highlights some of the key policy considerations in the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline.
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Health Equity Considerations
To reduce health inequities, disparities in access to and utilization of pain care must be addressed. This resource outlines considerations for promoting health equity when interpreting the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline recommendations.
This project is supported by the cooperative agreement number CDC-RFA-OT18-1802, OT18-1802 National Partners Cooperative Agreement, Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation's Health, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.