Another large international Study [Canadian], which highlights how force-tapering or “Discontinuing opioid therapy for people with chronic pain raises the risk of a patient dying from an overdose.” YET in Australia, our recently released National Pain Survey showed that over 1 in 4 Australians with… Read More »Stopping Opioid Therapy Raises Risk of Overdose
Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2022, was released by the Penington Institute on 2-9-22, coinciding with International Overdose Awareness Day. Their website [see Link above] loudly trumpets the shocking news: “America’s Opioid Epidemic is Australia’s Future, If We Don’t Act Now!” TRUE OR FALSE? It is crystal clear… Read More »The “Opioid Crisis” and Untreated Pain in Australia
The title says it all. Why are those people who are living with daily, severe pain excluded from the conversation around pain management? Why are we treated as problems with no solution, difficult, unpleasant and something to be swept under the rug? With “patient centred… Read More »Why are people who live with severe, daily chronic pain not included in the conversation around pain management?
ADDICTION RATES <1% IN CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS [Excluding OUD]. Almost everyone who takes prescription opioids for an extended period will become physically dependent, however only a SMALL PERCENTAGE also experience the compulsive, continuing need or ‘craving’ to get high that characterises psychological addiction. Responsible chronic… Read More »Addiction Rare in Chronic Pain Patients
This is a very large study with 2,021,371 participants. It looked at patients who were prescribed an opioid for pain and examined how many people continued to take them long-term (what they defined as ‘addiction’) (3.17%) and how many experienced an opioid overdose (0.055%). It’s… Read More »Study: Initial opioid prescription patterns and the risk of ongoing use and adverse outcomes
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 meta-analysis of FDA-required double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials of opioid analgesics for the treatment of chronic pain has shown that there is an ample evidence base supporting the efficacy of opioid analgesics for at least 3 months’ duration, a standard period for the evaluation of treatments for chronic pain and other chronic disorders
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