You have been referred for an Opioid Risk assessment because your doctor may have
concerns about your ability to be safely maintained on opioid medication or to seek out
additional treatment options.
 

A psychological assessment helps your doctor identify vulnerabilities to addiction or
misuse before or while prescribing opioid medication. It determines your baseline risk by
evaluating personal and family histories of substance use, pre-existing mental health
conditions, and past trauma.
 

If your referral has been triggered by an inappropriate toxicology screening, then your
doctor may choose to refer you for a psychological evaluation, stop prescribing opioid
medication, or discharge you from the practice. If a doctor has chosen to refer you for
an evaluation it is not a judgement of you, and it does not necessarily mean that they
doubt your reason for the inconsistent finding on the toxicology screening. Rather it
reflects their concern for you and a desire to gain a deeper understanding in order to
develop a plan that will best serve you.
 

During the evaluation we will discuss the circumstances that may have led to the
inconsistent findings. We will focus on vulnerabilities and certain psychological factors
which might heavily correlate with a higher risk of developing an opioid use disorder. If
your risk of abuse is elevated, we can suggest safeguards that can be put in place.
False -positive findings happen and at times there are extenuating circumstances or isolated lapses in judgement that can lead to inconsistent findings. Our goal is to understand what happened and to find solutions to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
 

Opioid treatment may not be the ideal choice for everyone. Higher psychological risk
doesn't always mean you can't utilize opioids, but it often provides insight to doctors to consider prioritizing non-opioid treatments. If we determine that there was no  misuse, but that other variables were at play, we will bring that to the attention of your pain
management team. The goal of the evaluation is to assist them in offering you the safest and most effective treatment options.