Balancing Pain Relief and Safety: The Opioid REMS Advantage

Chronic, subacute, and acute pain remain among the most common and complex challenges encountered in clinical practice. Inadequate pain management contributes to diminished quality of life, impaired function, and increased healthcare utilization. At the same time, the ongoing opioid crisis underscores the need for safe, evidence-based approaches to prescribing and monitoring opioid therapy. Clinicians must be equipped to recognize the multifactorial biopsychosocial influences on pain, apply validated assessment tools, and incorporate national guidelines to balance effective pain relief with patient safety. Enhanced provider competency in multimodal pain management, patient counseling, and identification of opioid misuse risk—including application of DSM-5 criteria for opioid use disorder (OUD)—is essential to optimizing outcomes while minimizing harm.

This CMEO Podcast will feature a simulated discussion with practical, real-world insight into chronic pain management. Listeners will learn to identify the physiologic biopsychosocial factors that shape pain experiences, utilize pain assessment tools to reinforce patient-centered and evidence-based management approaches, apply recommendations from the 2022 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids to create safe and effective treatment plans, and develop additional valuable skills and strategies that improve outcomes for patients living with chronic pain.

At the conclusion of this activity, learners will be able to better:

• Identify physiologic biopsychosocial factors that influence different etiologies of pain
• Utilize pain assessment tools that reinforce approaches to the appropriate management of pain
• Implement strategies from the 2022 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids into the development of safe and effective pain management plans for patients with acute, subacute, and chronic pain
• Counsel patients on multimodal pain management to optimize safe and effective, multimodal treatment plans as well as safe storage and disposal
• Evaluate opioid nonmedical use risk when developing multimodal pain management plans

​​This activity is supported by an independent educational grant from the Opioid Analgesic REMS Program Companies.

Please click here for a listing of REMS Program Companies. This activity is intended to be fully compliant with the Opioid Analgesic REMS education requirements issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Physicians, physician associates (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), nurses, dentists, and pharmacists

*All identified conflicts of interest have been mitigated.

Unlabeled Use Disclosure
Faculty of this CME/CE activity may include discussions of products or devices that are not currently labeled for use by the FDA. The faculty have been informed of their responsibility to disclose to the audience if they will be discussing off-label or investigational uses (any uses not approved by the FDA) of products or devices. CME Outfitters, LLC, the faculty, planners, and reviewers do not endorse the use of any product outside of the FDA labeled indications. Medical professionals should not utilize the procedures, products, or diagnosis techniques discussed during this activity without evaluation of their patient for contraindications or dangers of use.

Post-tests, credit request forms, and activity evaluations must be completed online (requires free account activation), and participants can print their certificate or statement of credit immediately (70% pass rate required). This website supports all browsers except Internet Explorer for Mac.

Call us at 877.CME.PROS (877.263.7767).

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