Question

CANCER PATIENTS SHOULD BE EXCLUDED FROM OPIATE RESTRICTIONS. That is my topic. I need help writing an introduction for my paper that includes all of the following:

Etiology

Epidemiology

The magnitude of the problem

Cost of the problem

and incidence & prevalence of the problem (the problem being restrictions stopping a timely pain management for cancer patients)

Answer 1

Regulations designed to curb opioid abuse and addiction should "largely exempt cancer patients," according to a policy statement from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Characterizing cancer patients as a "special population," ASCO said a broad exemption from regulations that limit access to or doses of prescription opioids is justified because of the "unique nature of their disease, its treatment, and potentially life-long adverse health effects from having had cancer." That principle and others in the policy statement provide guidance to "balance the public health concerns regarding abuse and misuse of prescription opioids with the need to ensure access to appropriate PAIN MANAGEMENT for cancer patients and survivor.

In announcing the policy statement ASCO officials expressed the organization's support for federal efforts to prevent prescription drug abuse but also expressed a commitment to protect cancer patients' access to "appropriate medical opioid therapy."

Aside from the "special population" perspective, the "ASCO Policy Statement on Opioid Therapy: Protecting Access to Treatment for Cancer-Related Pain" incorporated the following principles:

• Healthcare provider access to a choice of materials on prescribing education that is "evidence based and tailored by specialty";
• No prescription limits that would "artificially impede access to medically necessary treatment for patients with cancer";
• Patient education emphasizing safe use, storage, and disposal of prescription pain medication;
• Allowances in prescription drug monitoring programs for providers who treat cancer-related pain and "may prescribe relatively large numbers of opioids or provide multiple controlled drugs at relatively high doses";
• Appropriate patient screening and assessment before and during opioid treatment, although use of compliance tools should not be mandated for all patients who receive opioids;
• Use of abuse-deterrent -- or non-abuse deterrent -- formulations of prescription pain medication, as determined by clinical and patient-specific circumstances;
• Rapid patient access to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for opioid misuse, abuse, or addiction;
• Increased access to naloxone, "a life-saving medication in cases of opioid overdose"; and
• Prescription "take-back" programs to decrease availability of unused or unwanted opioids, including readily available authorized collection sites for patientsd

Etiology :--

1: cause and origenspecifically : the cause of a disease or abnormal condition

2: a branch of knowledge concerned with causesspecifically : a branch of medical science concerned with the causes and origins of diseases

Epidemiology:-

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events (including disease), and the application of this study to the control of diseases and other health problems. Various methods can be used to carry out epidemiological investigations: surveillance and descriptive studies can be used to study distribution; analytical studies are used to study determinants.

Cost of the problem-   two major cancer drugs: regorafenib (Stivarga) and sorafenib (Nexavar), which increased more than $1,000 per month. Now, Stivarga costs around $16,800 per month, while Nexavar costs about $18,500 per month.