The study demonstrates that most overdoses are due to polypharmacy, not due to opioids alone and the numbers of ‘opioid’ induced deaths are inflated by including all deaths where opioids were found on toxicology, but may not have been the cause of death.:
Many current assumptions about opioid analgesics are ill-founded. Illicit fentanyl and heroin, not opioid prescribing, now fuel the current opioid overdose epidemic. National discussion has often neglected the potentially devastating effects of uncontrolled chronic pain. Opioid analgesic prescribing and related overdoses are in decline, at great cost to patients with pain who have benefited or may benefit from, but cannot access, opioid analgesic therapy.
This is important for every Australian who is on long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain https://www.opioiddeprescribingguideline.com Most people in the chronic pain community will not be aware that there are Draft Opioid Deprescribing Guidelines currently open for public comment. The Draft Guidelines and a template… Read More »GUIDELINE FOR DEPRESCRIBING OPIOID ANALGESICS
This study pulls no punches: “The use of opioids in chronic non-cancer pain continues to be a flashpoint in medicine. The media and others continue to cite rising deaths due to opioids without clarifying that a large percentage of the current deaths are related to… Read More »Study: “One Size Fits All” Doesn’t Fit When It Comes to Long-Term Opioid Use for People with Chronic Pain
In 2012 a group of distinguished pain clinicians from nine European countries got together to discuss the appropriate use of strong opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. These people are all at the top of their field and their conclusions and recommendations are drawn from vast… Read More »Study: Appropriate and responsible use of opioids in chronic non-cancer pain
After three months of treatment, the large majority of patients, who were on stable doses, the average pain intensity scores were unchanged or improved for approximately 70 to 80% of patients. The most common adverse events were not serious, including constipation and nausea, and the incidence of these events declined over time on treatment.
Chronic non-cancer pain – It is oft said that opioids are not effective long term, and that chronic non-cancer pain should not be treated with opioids for this reason. It is said that there is ‘no evidence that opioids work for pain long term’ and this lack of evidence is regarded as evidence.
Australian Chronic non-cancer pain patients are being denied opioid pain relieving medications due to the misinterpretation and misabplication of the opioid prescribing guidelines
A new study from UNSW Sydney has analysed findings from a five-year cohort of 1514 people who have been prescribed opioids for chronic non-cancer pain, finding that risk for problematic opioid outcomes is related to a combination of patient characteristics and pre-existing factors, rather than… Read More »New UNSW report: Problem opioid behaviours are related to pre-existing risks, not dose
Reading through the multitude of articles based on the Pennington Institute’s Annual Overdose report, much reporting is glossing over the very important fact that HEROIN is now the cause of most opioid deaths.