Thread by @JillPiggott

In 2019, #CDC Guideline authors quoted their 2016 stats:

"nearly 2 million" have #opioid use disorder,
"estimated 3% to 4%" rely on long-term opioid therapy
"approximately 11%" report daily #pain

"Nearly 2 million"=nearly 0.6%. Stick with me.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

Before governments recommend & legislators, providers, & insurers adopt policies that could harm up to 11% to possibly protect 0.6%, they need damned good evidence that what they're recommending is necessary.

But they didn't know if rx #opioid limits would help or kill.

#CDC set off a tidal wave of limits in 2016, even tho the studies then available on dose limits provided "very-low-quality evidence" that reducing or stopping med would improve pain, function, or quality of life. 76% got the *lowest* rating for evidence.

acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.73…

The US has 2 #opioid crises. Crisis 1: Drug overdose is the #1 cause of death for people under 50. Policymakers & prescribers (wrongly) assume medical use is a leading cause of #addiction, so they push people who are safely, effectively taking opioids off med, causing Crisis 2.

Multiple studies show that pushing people with #addiction OR with #ChronicPain off rx #opioids makes it more (not less) likely that they'll die of OD or suicide.

Abandoning patients to "save" them often kills them.

2,887 of the #vets taken off rx #opioids in FY 2013 died of overdose or suicide. That's 90 fewer bodies than terrorists produced on 9/11. People taken off meds were up to 6.8 times MORE likely to die than those still treated. bmj.com/content/368/bm…

Civilians also have higher rates of death AFTER #opioid discontinuation.

Reduction also puts people at 4.3x the risk of having NO medical care for an entire year. Med can dramatically improve function, allowing people to see doctors & get screenings. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

By 2019, we knew efforts to curb ODs by restricting access to medicine had "failed." That year, the FDA warned doctors that rapid/sudden tapers were killing people. jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

Policymakers have to stop playing cute with stats to blur what % of the population has #addiction & what % has #ChronicPain. Most of all, they have to stop promoting a policy that failed to meet its goal.

People are dying. They're unnecessarily disabled. #Enough

@threadreaderapp unroll

headsUPmigraine @NitaGhei @amylorrainelong @PROPkills @hope411adcock