A group of doctors and public health officials urged the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday to curtail the overuse and abuse of prescription painkillers by changing labeling directions on how and when physicians should prescribe them.

The request came in a so-called citizens petition sent Wednesday to the F.D.A. by some 35 physicians, including Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the commissioner of the Department of Health in New York City, and Dr. Nirav R. Shah, the commissioner of the New York State Department of Health.

The F.D.A. rarely acts on the basis of such petitions, and it can take months or years for the agency to respond. However, the move by the group appears to be part of a broader campaign by public health officials to highlight the dangers posed by narcotic painkillers, or opioids, particularly when they are used at high dosages or over long periods of time.

Image Dr. Nirav Shah, the New York State health commissioner, was among 35 health care leaders who signed the petition. Credit... Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

“Overprescribing of opioids is harming many chronic pain patients,” Edward Covington, director of the Neurological Center for Pain at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement.