Today in the media, I see a story on opioids and back and neck pain titled Opioids don’t help acute back and neck pain – and could be harmful, Australian research finds. Here’s the study summary the article refers to in the Lancetand I finally found the full study. You can read that here. The … Read more
Study: Reducing Opioid Use for Chronic Pain With a Group-Based Intervention. A Randomized Clinical Trial Ok, so here we go again. Another study, making headlines, where the researchers are making claims that their own study does NOT support. The study’s authors are misrepresenting their results, presumably to get published, to increase their profile, to get … Read more
If you’re living with chronic pain, it’s very likely your GP will recommend you see a Pain Management Specialist to optimise your care. Many people are excited at the prospect of seeing a specialist doctor who can diagnose, treat and manage chronic pain, but the prospect can also be daunting. This article should hopefully help … Read more
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 their patients, who live with severe, daily pain, off their … Read more
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 advertorial for South Pacific Private, a treatment centre for ‘trauma, … Read more
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 equivalents (MME) or above per day, during a 12-month period. … Read more
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 treated or even tapering off opioids completely. This was a … Read more
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 to address opioid-involved overdose fatalities have led to widespread implementation … Read more
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 35 times, most of which it was used as evidence … Read more
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. This is not so much a study, as a consortium … Read more