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 to comment are available at the link below. If they … Read more
The US government proposed new guidelines for prescribing opioid pain medications on Thursday. Of particular importance is that they have removed the previously applied recommended ceilings on doses for chronic pain patients, and instead encourage doctors to use their clinical judgement. This is a huge change in policy and a massive step forward, as here … Read more
The prescription “opioid crisis” response in America, triggered by their Centre for Disease Control, has clearly harmed the chronic pain patient population (forced tapers, suicides etc), and we certainly don’t want this flawed approach coming to Australian shores! American authorities & policymakers have finally realised their error and are now trying to reverse some of the harm done. In fact, the authors of CDC guidelines acknowledge they’ve been misapplied and even admitted “we know little about the benefits and harms of reducing high dosages of opioids in patients who are physically dependent on them.”