Prevention of Opioid Analgesic Misuse in Canada: pragmatic and innovative strategies?

Pain that persists for months is categorized as chronic. Chronic pain is reported by 20% of the Canadian population and has major societal and economical impacts. Misuse of strong pain medication (opioid narcotics such as morphine, oxycodone) is sometimes necessary. Risk of opioid misuse (taking the medication for reasons other than pain relief) is estimated at 5% in chronic pain patients. Medication abuses, overuse, misuse that could drive to addiction are harmful to an individual's health and their families. In the Canada, it was estimated that health and societal costs are over 60 billion dollars per year (medical, work lost, juridical). In the first phase of the Canadian Initiative in Substance Misuse, we propose a Workshop on Opioid Misuse with knowledge users (patient advocacy groups, clinicians, research, Canadian Pain Societies and health organizations) to identify what information is made available, find the best strategies to implement or refine available tools to detect risk of pain medication misuse, and how to manage it in doctor's clinics. Strategic knowledge transfer strategies (e.g., web, media and professional journal, telemedicine and decision makers meetings) are to be planned.