Huge new law in Massachusetts would lock down opioid prescriptions

The Massachusetts legislature is proposing a new anti-opioid law that will restrict patients to a minimum amount of prescription painkillers received from their doctors.

This is an effort to curb addiction to the drug, while still offering support to pain sufferers, according to bostonglobe.com. However, a chief concern, posed by an economic analysis demonstrates the difficulty of maintaining sound health while restricting the drug.

Drug monitoring seems to save lives, but “once a prescription drug monitoring program goes into effect, patients become less satisfied with their pain treatment,” according to Angela Kilby, a graduate student in the MIT economics department.

Kilby measured the impact of prescription monitoring programs across the country and found that about 1,000 lives, including those of Massachusetts residents, are saved every year by implementing such programs.

The study estimates that about 75 million Americans a year seek pain relief from opioid prescriptions, but “once a prescription drug monitoring program goes into effect, patients become less satisfied with the pain treatment.”

According to Kilby, this was true of both injured workers seeking workers’ compensation, and patients receiving hospital care. She sited their need for “more recovery time” once a monitoring program was introduced.  Pain management also became worse, she said.

Massachusetts, which has a high incidence of drug overdoses, has been making multi-prong efforts to curb drug addiction. The anti-opioid bill will make it illegal for doctors to start patients suffering from pain with anything more than a seven-day supply of opioids.