RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) The Virginia Board of Medicine voted to adopt new regulations in response to Virginias opioid epidemic.

These regulations address the safe prescribing of opioids and buprenorphine by health care practitioners in the Commonwealth. The regulations also give prescribers a descriptive template for effective prescribing habits to ultimately produce best patient outcomes.

The opioid prescribing regulations address three common types of pain: Acute pain (often from injury or minor illness), pain resulting from surgery and chronic pain. The regulations prescribe limitations on the number of days opioids should be prescribedwhile maintaining a physicians discretion to exceed in cases where medically necessary. The BOM also addressed the prescribing of buprenorphine, used to treat opioid addiction, to ensure Virginians struggling with anopioid use disorder have every opportunity to successfully manage their disease.

The epidemic of opioid abuse and overdose has devastated thousands of Virginia families, said Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Dr. Bill Hazel. Setting limits and guidelines for proper prescribing, as these regulations do, will help curtail the flow of pills into our communities and significantly reduce the chances of people becoming addicted to prescribed medications. The new regulations also help ensure when people are prescribed the addiction treatment medication buprenorphine, they get the addiction counseling that is critical to their recovery.

These regulations will now be available for review under the Administrative Process Act and are then expected to be signed by the Governor. To see the full regulations, click here.

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Virginia Board of Medicine adopts regulations to address opioid epidemic - WRIC