1/FYI:Opioid Rx’s ⬇️ 60% vs 9 years ago.

Outcomes have not been good. OD deaths are way ⬆️, & patients traumatized

This thread covers 4 years of my peer-reviewed articles.

Let’s recalibrate policy, measure what we are doing, and LISTEN to the folks whose lives are at stake
2/This is the overall policy review of how we got here and how we mis-allocated the response (with @AJ_Gordon) ,

and why policy winds up (inevitably) being less than rational in the real world @AddictionJrnl onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…
3/This piece says why efforts to “Turn the Tide” with a narrow focus on Rx risked a Riptide for patients, as fentanyl deaths rose.

The article led me to brief then Surgeon General @vivek_murthy in 2017- who shared this concern completely tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
4/Here in @JAMANetworkOpen with Dr Jeffrey Samet in 2018, we discuss “Directions & Misdirections” in opioid policy - the need is for treatment expansion & education. jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…
5/Here 3 clinician-researcher declare that that prescriptionsare a “solemn responsibility”

But we saw no evidence that legal restrictions on duration will substantially alter the prevalence of addiction, @MMundkur @AJ_Gordon tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
6/The presence of prescribed opioids in decedents is a reminder that they still do matter, however, I wrote with @DrScottHadland in @bmj_latest based on work by @Tara_Gomes

And the policy response requires a broader approach bmj.com/content/362/bm…
7/This 2019 editorial in @ASAMorg Journal of Addiction Med delivers a simple plea: that we start measuring the outcomes of prescription policies journalofsubstanceabusetreatment.com/article/S0740-…
8/One reason for concern was this: observational followup data where overdose and suicide were higher in persons who had opioid discontinuation. It is not proof of cause & effect but it sends a signal of concern. bmj.com/content/368/bm…
9/By 2020, we urged that mandates to taper #opioids were not justified ethically or clinically -
even when there could be debate about the original initiation of those meds.
Clinical complexity shouldn’t eclipse moral clarity journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
10/For anyone (a) planning new policies or (b) researching the IMPLEMENTATION of opioid prescribing changes, please use our blueprint to promote patient-centered approaches to action and assessment - @JournalGIM @BethDarnall @AllysonVarley link.springer.com/article/10.100…
11/There are many other writers & speakers I recommend on #opioidcrisis @maiasz @slsatel @AJ_Gordon @CarlynZwaren @KeithNHumphreys @crackdownpod @DrSarahWakeman @headdock @BobTwillman @speakingabtpain @LeoBeletsky @DrEllenEaton @adfurlan - please engage even if you do disagree
12/For those of us who don’t like where we are headed so far in responding to a tragedy that involves pain, addiction & profound stigma, those 9 articles reflect my best effort, always with cherished collaborators, to redirect and help us revise with #evidence #science #mercy

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More from @StefanKertesz

31 Dec 20
“Why did so many physicians become Nazis?” – this new essay bears on us, the non-Nazi doctors. In short, “science” can be invoked by immoral agents, & science language can seduce us into societal plans that override our duties to individuals @tabletmag /1 tabletmag.com/sections/histo…
Germany was extreme, of course.

Over 50% of doctors joined the Nazi party. There, Jews, gays & disabled persons were designated a disease on the German “body”. Ridding Germany of them was seen as good science.

We need not project the US will follow that, ever /2
But the US & other nations have not been alien to an immoral use of science-based authority.

Germany’s Laws for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring were based on American laws, passed earlier. We should all know about Tuskegee
/3 cdc.gov/tuskegee/timel…
Read 15 tweets
15 Dec 20
1/This week in @journaljgim: “Promoting Patient-Centeredness in #opioid Deprescribing: a Blueprint for De-implementation Science”

Tools of “deimplementation science” should guide evaluation of health care changes - w/@BethDarnall @AllysonVarley
link.springer.com/article/10.100…
2/Opioid prescribing has ⬇️37% since its peak in 2011. Today, many agencies agree that “deprescribing” was not carried out in ways that consistently protected patients.

We ask “how can well-intended changes to care transpire in ways that are unsafe or harmful?” 2019 CDC Surveillance Report, IQVIA data
3/De-implementation= “reducing or stopping practices that are ineffective, unproven, harmful, overused, or inappropriate”
With opioids, that could be not starting, stopping or reducing.For us, this does *not* reflect a commitment to opioid elimination from care.h/t @VPrasadMDMPH
Read 15 tweets
11 Dec 20
We are eager to hear the plenary speaker for @US_ASP (the new academic pain org for the US) Dr. Meghani of U.Penn Nursing.. on the "Guideline Epidemic and Pain Care" introduced by @JessicaMerlinMD @DrJohnPereira /1
Key points for Dr. Meghani:
*US fighting its drug war "like other resource poor countries"
*Broad misapplication of the 2016
@CDCgov
opioid guideline
*Seriously undermined care of patients with mod to severe pain
*Obligations of policy makers in scaling high policies /2
Key points made by Dr. Meghani, of U Penn Nursing for
@US_ASP
Insurers and states acted rapidly, in 2016-17 after
@CDCgov
, to impose hard #opioid dose limits, to require opioid stoppage and taper, all in apparent violation of the Guideline, which had a low evidence GRADE /3
Read 5 tweets
10 Dec 20
1/Bravo to Dr. @BethDarnall for stating (and better, helping lead a trial) ethical principles of a taper in which the patient is the agent, it's voluntary, and dose might go UP too. Thank-you @OldHeadFighta for the image in the next Tweet that captures the ethics here
2/Yes yes @OldHeadFighta - this gets at the reality that the principle is here is not just clinical but ETHICAL (and then I'll get to ethics)
3/The obligation upon clinicians is to treat the people in our care as full-fledged. Don't treat patients as means to an end, we wrote. Mandated dose reductions of opioids are "Not Justifiable Clinically or Ethically": pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32631183/
Read 4 tweets
9 Dec 20
Plenary: "The Evolving Relationship of Opioid Prescribing with Opioid Overdose and Suicide" - this topic will be presented of the new @US_ASP now by @AmyBohnert of University of Michigan - I'll share some points as they arise /1
Dr. Bohnert indicates she will focus more on overdose than on suicide because the combination of topics might exceed the time (and it would help to have suicide experts) /2
Opioid Rx and benzo Rx have been declining - for awhile, and for high-dose prescribing, etc. all of it is heading down @BrianMannADK of NPR please take note /3
Read 16 tweets
11 Nov 20
1/Last week we launched CSI:OPIOIDs, our research survey for bereaved families+friends who have lost a person with pain to suicide during a change in opioid prescribing. I want to say why this matters (fyi: it's at go.uab.edu/csiopioids ,or type URL if click-thru fails). First:
2/The recruitment letter approved by our ethical review board at @UABNews (called an IRB) is here: drive.google.com/file/d/19BRmWH…
3/Our team is inspired by the work of patients and families who have already come forward and spoken about this serious issue. We have been inspired by the painstaking efforts of people like @PainPtFightBack to record every death that comes to light.
Read 23 tweets

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