ACEP Clinical Policy — Opioid Prescribing in the ED (2020)

The ACEP 2020 Clinical Policy on prescribing opioid analgesics in the emergency department provides evidence-based guidance on appropriate use of opioids for acute pain management, risk mitigation strategies, alternatives to opioids (multimodal analgesia), naloxone co-prescription, and ED-based opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment integration. The opioid crisis — responsible for > 80,000 overdose deaths per year in North America (2022) — demands that ED prescribers make deliberate, evidence-driven opioid prescribing decisions while not under-treating legitimate acute pain.