Taking long-term opioid users off their prescription painkillers may be harmful, international health experts write in a letter published in Oxford Academic Pain Medicine.
The letter address two concerns:
1. Outpatients are rapidly forced off opioid tapering.
2. Opioid tapering that requires aggressive opioid dose reductions over time
The physicians group said opioid tapering guidelines were created to decrease patient harm, but patients who use opioids for chronic pain face additional and serious harm due to rapid opioid tapering dose reductions "that are aggressive and unrealistic."
The group of international physicians call for a "compassionate systems for opioid tapering," and "patient advisory boards ... to ensure that patient-centered systems are developed and patient rights are protected."
The letter petitions HHS to use patient data and include pain specialists when making patient pain management plans.
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