Thread by @JillPiggott

.@BrianMannADK At @headsUPmigraine, Dr @NitaGhei & I are trying to understand why medical research about the "very rare" risk of #addiction in medical #opioid use & the rising rate of causalities from rx opioid limits isn't being reported, even by thoughtful outlets like @NPR.

https://twitter.com/JillPiggott/status/1284190704231645186

#Addiction expert Maia Szalavitz explained in 2016, "#Opioid addiction is a huge problem, but pain prescriptions are not the cause." The fact that steep rx limits haven't so much as slowed rising ODs proves her right.

How did @NPR get this wrong? blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blo…

.@headsUPmigraine has been on the front line of the twin public health crisis caused by widespread discontinuation & dose reduction of rx #opioids: a rise in unnecessary #disability from #ChronicPain & a spike in #suicide.

#Migraine, even w/o depression, can quadruple #suicide risk. We're livid about a recent suicide. A patient died after spending the 6 months after her dr's retirement trying to find someone to continue an rx she'd taken w/o incident for 10 yrs. docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

Please contact Anne Fuqua, @PainPtFightBack, who wrote for the WashPo about her work on pain-patient #suicides. Watch @StefanKertesz's TED talk about the urgency of measuring the #opioid crisis in terms of patient outcome, not # of scripts.

Read attorney Kate Nicholson (@speakingabtpain) & her colleague Deborah Hellman on "Opioid Prescribing and the Ethical Duty to Do No Harm."
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…

.@NPR, in 2019, CDC, HHS, FDA acknowledged the widespread harm caused by "misapplication" of the guideline. Patients hoped they'd be treated as individuals again & not be subjected to bans & forced reductions.

In 2019 a former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine worried "fears, misinformation, & prejudices" about rx #opioids "are baked into the system."

@NPR could help. NPR could get the story right.

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