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Most ophthalmologists write no more than 10 opioid prescriptions annually, with a mean supply per prescription of five days, according to a study published online Oct. 5 in JAMA Ophthalmology. Shriji Patel, M.D., and Paul Sternberg Jr., M.D., both from Vanderbilt Eye Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, analyzed physician and beneficiary measures using Medicare Part D Prescriber Data (2013 to 2015) to determine prescribing patterns for opioid drugs for participating ophthalmologists. The researchers found that, consistently, 88 to 89 percent of ophthalmologists wrote 10 opioid prescriptions or fewer annually. Only about 1 percent of ophthalmologists wrote more than 100 opioid prescriptions annually. On average, ophthalmologists wrote seven opioid prescriptions per year with a mean supply of five days. The six states with the highest volume of annual opioid prescriptions per ophthalmologist were in the South.

Immediate access to opioid agonist treatment (OAT) for patients presenting with opioid use disorder may provide greater health benefits at less cost than observed standard of care, according to a study published online Nov. 21 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Emanuel Krebs, from St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues sought to determine the cost-effectiveness of OAT versus observed standard of care for patients presenting with opioid use disorder. Population-level administrative databases capturing treatment and criminal justice records for California were linked (2006 to 2010). Immediate access to OAT for all treatment recipients was found by the researchers to cost less (by $78,257), with patients accumulating more quality-adjusted life-years (by 0.42) versus the observed standard of care. Imagining a hypothetical scenario where all Californians starting treatment of opioid use disorder in 2014 had immediate access to OAT, the team found that total lifetime savings for this cohort could be as high as $3.8 billion.

I was in a major sledding accident as a child which has caused me to have over 10 reconstructive surgeries on my ankle and legs. I am still in constant pain 20 years later and still can't stand for a long time. I, however, don't like to be on opioids for the pain since I will be out of commission from work and school which I don't want to do, So can medical cannabis help?