Dr Gerald M Sacks Shares That Education Regarding Opioids Can Help Create More Awareness and Better Treatment

Explaining the unmet needs in the management of OIC, Dr Gerald M Sacks shares that various health care professionals, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants are not much into addressing and discussing OIC with their patients who are being prescribed opioids.

He educates people to better understand that when practitioners prescribe them opioids to treat chronic pain, they often develop OIC. In order to effectively address and treat it, various medications are available. He further states that peripherally acting µ-opioid receptor antagonists are designed to treat OIC. When taken on daily basis, these can prevent its development. 

He asserts that lack of education and awareness is the greatest unmet need in the management of OIC. Moreover, the practitioners are quite busy to have an in-depth discussion with the patient addressing this issue. Dr Gerald M Sacks understands that OIC can be a difficult problem for patients as well as health care professionals to discuss. Thus, it is important to create that comfort level to discuss the adverse effects of any medications prescribed and also the potential adverse effects. 

According to Dr Sacks, education regarding opioids and their adverse effects can help create more awareness and thus better treatment. Dr Gerald M Sacks concludes that every practitioner needs to focus on every diagnosis that patient has at every visit.