ER doctors prescribed more painkillers than in previous decade, especially to dental patients

A National Institute of Health study has quantified the frequency of prescriptions for narcotics in emergency rooms for the first time. Painkillers were prescribed three out of four visits to the ER from 1997 to 2007.  That was a rise of 26 percent over the 10-year period. Comparatively, a prescription for antibiotics was prescribed in one of every two visits.The report was published in the journal Medical Care.

Catherine Saint Louis of The New York Times reports that doctors can usually tell when someone is simply trying to get a fix, but other times, "it's difficult to make an objective assessment. Emergency doctors, said Yale School of Medicine's Gail D'Onofrio, "err on the side of treating pain." Many ER doctors acknowledge that they write a lot of prescriptions for painkillers, but say they feel they face a conundrum because some patients are genuinely in pain.

Program on Opiod Risk Management Director Nathaniel Katz said time pressures and heavy patient loads leave doctors with few choices. Especially when patients with dental issues come to the hospital ER. Katz said medical doctors lack tools, including dental X-ray machines, to effectively look for dental problems. They also aren't trained to perform many dental procedures, including dental block, or local anesthetic injections that offer pain relief for six to 16 hours. (Read more)