Safe Opioid Prescribing Examination®

The American Board of Pain Medicine has developed the Safe Opioid Prescribing Examination® (SOPE) to allow licensed health care professionals to demonstrate their knowledge of appropriate clinical use of opioid analgesics and their commitment to reducing adverse consequences associated with that use.

The Safe Opioid Prescribing Examination® is designed to promote safe prescribing of all opioid analgesic drug products and was created, in part, in response to the federal Food and Drug Administration Opioid Action Plan announced in February 2016. The examination content addresses the indications, contraindications, dosage and administration, upward- and downward-titration of these medicines, as well as their boxed and other warnings and precautions, drug-drug and drug-disease interactions, and potential for and management of adverse events arising from the therapeutic use, unintentional misuse, and abuse of immediate-release and Extended-Release/Long-Acting opioid analgesic drug products.

The intent of the exam is to: 1) confirm health care professionals’ understanding of the clinical use and abuse of opioid analgesics; 2) encourage prescribers and other health care professionals to improve and demonstrate their knowledge of the appropriate clinical use of opioid analgesics; 3) reduce inappropriate prescribing, diversion, abuse of and addiction to opioid analgesics; and 4) reverse the trend of overdose deaths and other preventable serious adverse reactions associated with the clinical use, misuse, or abuse of opioid analgesics.

ABPM believes that a thorough examination of knowledge attained from practice and specific educational experiences, coupled with a certificate of knowledge in Safe Opioid Prescribing, will set this initiative as the gold standard and one part of a multifaceted approach to safer use of opioid analgesics consistent with the mission of the American Board of Pain Medicine.

To receive further information and updates (including registration details) related to the American Board of Pain Medicine's Safe Opioid Prescribing Examination®, please click here.