.@MedPageToday Your 3/1 illustration about #opioid tapering is so offensive I won't retweet it. #ChronicPain, not the medicine that relieves it, is the ball & chain millions drag behind us. I direct @headsUPmigraine. I know people who died after being forced off safe med. /thread
Shame on you for perpetuating the stigma & misinformation that's ruining & even ending people's lives. "When #pain meds are taken the right way, #addiction is very rare." #opioids #cpp #spoonie cancer.org/content/dam/ca…
#CDC's Guidelines put the rate of non-problematic use of rx #opioids at average 96.97% w/ 3.03% including non-addictive "dependence." Brat 2018 reviewed 1+ million post-op patients & found rate of 99.4% unremarkable use; 0.6% included patients who refilled, @MedPageToday.
99.7% safe use of rx #opioids was finding of Ciesielski 2016. Opioids "are the best analgesics for treating moderate to severe #pain when nonopioid and nonpharmacologic treatments have failed" (Gallagher 2018). #cpp
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
"Responsive prevention & treatment of #migraine is incredibly impt. Evidence shows an increased sensitivity after each successive attack" (@NIH migraine pg). WHO ranks migraine in the highest category of disability burden. Undertreated #pain can cause irreversible #disability.
.@MedPageToday: "efforts to curb the course of the #opioid OD epidemic have principally focused on restricting the supply of prescription opioid analgesics." Evidence shows these programs have "failed" to reduce ODs, which are fueled by illicit drug use. jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…
.@MedPageToday, my colleague Dr @NitaGhei & I raised our alarm at a recent blog post you published which also misrepresented the risk of #addiction. Picturing a medicine as a ball & chain is inaccurate & harmful. Your editors should be more responsible.
.@headsUPmigraine is a national, patient-led advocacy organization. Dr Ghei & I are published academics who'd welcome the chance to write about the harm caused by forcing stable patients off safe, effective medicine. We'll follow up by email.
