We know that the process of prescribing medicine can be complex. And it isn’t always easy to tell whether opioid prescriptions are being misused. If you do think a patient is misusing or addicted to opioids, address the issue right away.

Here are a few things you can do to help as a provider:

• Register and use the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.
• Know the signs of addiction.
• Take the Scope of Pain online training. There, you can learn more about how to safely manage patients with chronic pain, including when and how to prescribe opioid therapy.
• Learn evidence-based approaches, like motivational interviewing, to intervene with a patient. Motivational interviewing is a patient-centered counseling technique that helps elicit and solidify a person’s motivation for change.
• Implement Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in your office. SBIRT is an evidence-based method for intervening with risky substance use and getting patients into treatment.