In June 2020, the Australian government, via the TGA, increased restrictions around the prescription of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. While these are well intentioned, and fit for purpose as written, they have been widely MISINTERPRETED and MISAPPLIED by many doctors, who have forced tapered… Read More »Petition against FORCED TAPERING OF OPIOID PAIN MEDICATION
Antidepressants are commonly prescribed to treat chronic pain, and prescribing is on the rise, but a recent University of Sydney led review has found most antidepressants are ineffective or treating chronic pain. Published in The BMJ, the study reviewed the safety and effectiveness of antidepressants in… Read More »Antidepressants are not effective for chronic pain – Study
The guardian published an article on the 6th of March, 2023 that is perjorative against chronic pain patietns and full of misinformation. Masquerading as an entry in a regular column titled “The Modern Mind” purportedly about mental health, this article is nothing more than an… Read More »Letters to the Editor – the Guardian on opioid addiction treatment
Published February 7, 2023 Link to study Yet another study from the University of California at Davis, examining tapering among adults prescribed stable doses of long-term opioid therapy (LTOT). These patients were receiving long term opioid therapy at a dose of 50 milligram of morphine… Read More »Study – Association Between Opioid Tapering and Subsequent Health Care Use, Medication Adherence, and Chronic Condition Control
Published June 13, 2022 Link to study This study is a continuation to the August 2021 study Association of Dose Tapering With Overdose or Mental Health Crisis Among Patients Prescribed Long-term Opioids that found opioid dose tapering was associated with overdose and mental health crisis.… Read More »Study – Long-term Risk of Overdose or Mental Health Crisis After Opioid Dose Tapering
Published August 3, 2021 link to study Patients receiving long term opioid therapy who experienced dose tapering off their opioid pain relieving medications experience higher rates of overdose and withdrawal, and mental health crisis, and that risk persists for up to two years, according to… Read More »Study – Association of Dose Tapering With Overdose or Mental Health Crisis Among Patients Prescribed Long-term Opioids
Published in Pain Medicine, Volume 20, Issue 3, March 2019 First published in 2018 Forced opioid tapering in the US was rampant and many high-profile pain management experts were concerned about the serious (and unjustified) harms, including overdose and suicide, that opioid tapering was causing.… Read More »Study: International Stakeholder Community of Pain Experts and Leaders Call for an Urgent Action on Forced Opioid Tapering
Published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, volume 222, May 2021 This study does not relate directly to the harms of overdose and suicide, but the significant stigma that changes to opioid policy has wrought upon chronic pain patients on long term opioid therapy. Background: “Efforts… Read More »Study – “I felt like I had a scarlet letter”: Recurring experiences of structural stigma surrounding opioid tapering among patients with chronic, non-cancer pain
Published in Pain Medicine, volume 20, Issue 11, November 2019 First published in 2018 Link to study THIS is the study that is often referred to as ‘evidence’ that tapering opioids does NOT result in increased pain. According to google scholar, it has been cited… Read More »Study – Does Opioid Tapering in Chronic Pain Patients Result in Improved Pain or Same Pain vs Increased Pain at Taper Completion? A Structured Evidence-Based Systematic Review
In Australia, opioid tapering has become commonplace since the regulations around opioid prescribing changed in June 2020. Many GPs and pain specialists have undertaken forced opioid tapering, either reducing opioid doses to less than 100 milligrams of morphine equivalent (MME) leaving the patient’s pain under… Read More »Opioid tapering – the harms