Sample 3: 2010
Anesthesiology papers published in
201033–40expressed increasing skepticism about the effects of long-term opioid
prescribing and began documenting opioid-related harms. Most papers did
not necessarily report that opioids were ineffective for pain relief.
Instead, they pointed out that other negative consequences have been
overlooked. A study of patients who received opioids for chronic
non-cancer pain concluded “that the range of possible harms from
[chronic opioid therapy] may be broader and of a different nature
than has been described in treatment
guidelines.”40This is a widely shared sentiment in most of the articles in this
sample. For example, Jay writes that “[t]he treatment of the CNCP
patient with only narcotics is problematic and most often leads to
failure. The most appropriate treatment is within an inter-disciplinary
pain management
program.”34This represents a significant change in the tone of anesthesiology
papers from 2000, when opioid prescribing was generally advocated as a
standalone solution for chronic non-cancer pain.