Opioid Therapy for Chronic Pain Questioned.

PositionDRUG DEPENDENCY

Stopping long-term opioid treatment does not make chronic, noncancer-related pain worse and, in some cases, makes it better, researchers at Washington State University, Pullman, have found. The research marks a crucial first step towards understanding how ending long-term opioid therapy affects patients with different types of chronic pain and could help medical practitioners identify effective, alternative treatments to opioids.

"On average, pain did not become worse among patients in our study a year after discontinuing long-term opioid therapy," says Sterling McPherson, associate professor and director for biostatistics and clinical trial design at the College of Medicine. "If anything, their pain improved slightly, particularly among patients with mild to moderate pain just after discontinuation. Clinicians might consider these findings when discussing the risks and benefits of long-term opioid therapy as compared to other, nonopioid treatments for chronic pain."

Eighty-seven percent of the patients were diagnosed with chronic musculoskeletal pain, six percent with neuropathic pain, and 11% with headache pain, including migraines. While patients differed widely in the intensity of pain they experienced before and after stopping opioids, as a whole, their pain did not get worse and remained similar or slightly improved.

"Our results indicate...

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