FDA’s Considering Safety Training Courses for Prescription Medication

The FDA is considering implementing safety training courses for prescription medication.

FOX’s Alex Hein explains in “Housecall for Health”:

This is Housecall for Health.

According to federal documents, the Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering whether doctors who prescribe painkillers like Oxycontin, should be required to take safety training courses.

A meeting is set for this week where a panel of FDA advisers will review risk-management plans put in place nearly four years ago to reduce misuse and abuse of long-acting painkillers, powerful drugs frequently abused for their euphoric effects.

Currently, drug makers fund voluntary training for physicians in safely prescribing their medications, but many experts said the measures didn’t go far enough and training should be mandatory.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids, including prescription pain relievers and heroin, killed more than 28,000 people in 2014. At least half of all opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription drug.

In the next round of meetings, outside safety experts will be asked what changes should be made to improve risk plans.

For more on this story, check FOXNewsHealth.com.

Housecall for Health, I’m Alex Hein, FOX News.