DEA vows to stop pain med abuse, not prescribing

The agency said it does not want to keep physicians from getting OxyContin to patients who need it.

By Damon Adams, amednews staff. Nov. 19, 2001.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and 21 health organizations said they will work to ensure that patients with chronic pain can get OxyContin (oxycodone hydrochloride).

The DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said the agency would continue to fight abuse of the painkiller while trying not to discourage physicians from prescribing it.

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At an Oct. 23 news conference, the DEA issued a joint statement with the American Medical Association, the American Pain Foundation, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Pharmaceutical Assn. and Last Acts.

"It is a statement calling for balance," said Karen Orloff Kaplan, national program director of Last Acts, a coalition working to improve end-of-life care.

Leaders are focusing attention on the time-released painkiller OxyContin, which has become an illicit street drug that users crush and snort or dissolve and inject to get a powerful high. A recent review by the DEA of autopsy data found OxyContin suspected in 282 overdose deaths during a 19-month span.

Some doctors have scaled back writing prescriptions of OxyContin for fear of being targets of lawsuits or DEA investigations. But health organizations said the DEA's involvement in the joint statement should tell physicians not to worry about DEA scrutiny.

Physicians "need to feel comfortable prescribing these medications for people who need them," said Yank D. Coble Jr., MD, AMA president-elect.

Some patients said doctors should not shy away from prescribing OxyContin, manufactured by Purdue Pharma, for pain.

"I was in pain that prevented me from working the way I wanted to," said attorney Mary Vargas, who took pain medications following a car crash in July 1996. OxyContin "was profoundly positive on my life."

Federal and state officials have been exploring ways to stop illegal use of OxyContin, including curbing distribution of the drug. Groups such as the AAFP are concerned that states may place limits on doctors prescribing OxyContin.

Pain specialists said doctors need to be careful about which patients get OxyContin and which ones don't.

"We need to select patients appropriately and then we need to prescribe appropriately," said Russell K. Portenoy, MD, chair of the department of pain medicine and palliative care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.