A panel of pediatric and other specialists have laid out a new set of guidelines for doctors and parents regarding use of opioids for pain relief in children following surgery.
The guidelines have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery.
Dr. Lorraine Kelley-Quon, a Pediatric Surgeon at Children’s Hospital, says the 20 person team came up with the protocols to try and minimize abuse of the drugs when they are prescribed for children up to their late teens.
"A child may receive no opioids after surgery or many extra opioid pills. Those pills, if they are not used, they go into the community and they may be shared among family members or between a teenager and their friends," she says.
The protocols advise doctors of the risks of opioid abuse in young people to acknowledge and advocate use of effective of non-opioid pain relievers and to counsel parents about the use and risks of opioids in their children and how they should be safely stored and disposed of when they are no longer needed.