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Papers of the Week
Hopes and fears before opioid tapering: a quantitative and qualitative study of patients with chronic pain and long-term opioids.
Abstract
It is clear that the risks of opioids in chronic pain outweigh the benefits, creating a drive for clinicians to support patients taper and stop long-term opioids. However, it is not known how patients who have been taking these medicines for months or years feel about reducing them. Using quantitative and qualitative data, this study describes the psychological complexity of these patients and examines their hopes and fears before opioid reduction.