NORTH CAROLINA -- Fewer North Carolina doctors are prescribing opioids to patients, according to a recent study.

• Several doctors say they no longer treat chronic pain with opioids
• Some have stopped accepting new patients with chronic pain
• Some say they have stopped prescribing opioids because of the unknown

Of the hundreds of doctors polled in a survey by the North Carolina Medical Board, 43 percent of them said they no longer treat chronic pain patients with opioids. 

Dr. Gerald Aronoff, the medical director of Carolina Pain Associates, says he prescribes fewer opioids than he used to, but he also says if you don't prescribe them for patients who need them, it can be a problem.

He says some doctors have stopped prescribing because of the unknown.

"They felt they weren't going to take the risk. Not the risk of what they were going to do to patients, but the risk that someone was looking over their shoulder and it may cause them their license or look badly on the practice," Aronoff said.

Thirteen percent of doctor's practices surveyed by the North Carolina Medical Board say they have stopped accepting new patients with chronic pain.