What is it about?
We did a survey of patients using opioids regularly from clinics limiting opioid prescribing compared to clinics without limits. We found it didn't matter which clinics the patients were from, everyone had very severe pain despite using opioids regularly.
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Why is it important?
People argue that putting limits on opioid prescribing is going to hurt patients who really need opioids, but that is not what we found. Our findings show that putting limits on opioid prescribing had no effect on patients' pain. We were surprised to find that despite having severe pain that interfered in their lives, patients said opioids were "very or extremely" helpful in giving them pain relief.
Perspectives
I was privileged to work on this study with my colleagues and to write about the impact of policy on patients. I hope this article inspires people to consider policy changes in their clinics and spurs on more research to get us closer to a solution.
Manu Thakral
University of Massachusetts Boston
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comparing Pain and Depressive Symptoms of Chronic Opioid Therapy Patients Receiving Dose Reduction and Risk Mitigation Initiatives With Usual Care, Journal of Pain, January 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2017.09.006.
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