Current and emerging options to combat the opioid epidemic

Today's management of chronic pain presents a challenging clinical dilemma. Although clinicians wish to relieve a patient's suffering, they must do so without undertreating the pain or contributing to the drug abuse problem. Following a steady rise in opioid prescription rates from 2006 to 2012, increased national attention for the obioid abuse epidemic likely contributed to the decline in prescribing rates from 2012 to 2016. Although opioids have helped many patients, they are also associated with adverse events and a growing national crisis of misuse, abuse, and overdose.