A new course at the University of Calgary aims to help family doctors and specialists to both safely prescribe opioids and taper patients already taking them.
Alberta Health Services say it takes about one week for a patient to become physically dependent on opioids after they have been prescribed.
“We have spent a lot of time with doctors in their initial training teaching them how to start medications, we really don’t spend very much time teaching them how to stop,” said Dr. Lori Montgomery.
Called Wise Prescribing and De-prescribing: Opioid Skills for the Frontline Clinician, the course is available on the U of C website and includes short podcasts, interview clips with physicians, as well as patient testimonials.
Shan Rahim, 35, has lived with Crohn’s disease for the last 25 years and has been prescribed morphine pills to help deal with pain.
“It’s more abdominal and post-surgical complications and also just stuff from the medications I take,” said Rahim.
“After a while you just felt like you couldn’t get off of it.”
Those taking the course will also attend two, in-person workshops, three months apart, allowing physicians to learn from each other.
Dr. Kelly Burak, associate dean of continuing medical education and professional development, says any of Alberta’s 4,500 family physicians can sign up.
“What we’re looking at is patients who have been prescribed opioids primarily for chronic pain and have ended up on higher and higher doses, to where there are safety issues” said Burak
The course is a partnership between the University of Calgary, Alberta Health Services and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
A neen the University of Calgary, Alberta Health Services and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
