Studies You Should Know About

Here's a quick run down on recently published and forthcoming studies to which you should be paying close attention:


On the heels of the recent Kaiser study that showed the safety and effectiveness of outpatient weaning, even among patients on high doses of opioids, comes another (slightly larger) study with similar results.  A study presented at the 35th annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine showed "patients receiving high doses of opioids show no worsening of pain scores or aberrant drug behaviors after significant dose reductions compared with patients who do not have dose reductions."  Lead author Dr. David DiBenedetto from the Boston Pain Care Center noted, "Despite significant reductions in their opioid doses and the fact that doses were often actually increased in the control group, the outcomes in the areas of perceived functionality and aberrant behaviors were no different between the two groups."  The minimum starting dose of the high dose group was 200 mg MED per day and the average was 508 mg MED/day.


Once again... we can do this... we can do it on an outpatient basis... we can relieve pain, increase functionality, and improve health... we just have to lower the opioid dose. 


My last post on the new ACOEM guidelines highlighted the fact that the longest, placebo-controlled study of opioid use lasted 4 months.  Obviously, nowhere near good enough.  Keep an eye out for the forthcoming POINT study (the Pain and Opioids In Treatment study).  A quick overview:


"The Pain and Opioids In Treatment (POINT) study is a unique study that aims to: 1) examine patterns of opioid use in a cohort of patients prescribed opioids for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP); 2) examine demographic and clinical predictors of adverse events, including opioid abuse or dependence, medication diversion, other drug use, and overdose; and 3) identify factors predicting poor pain relief and other outcomes. Methods: The POINT cohort comprises around 1,500 people across Australia prescribed pharmaceutical opioids for CNCP.  Participants will be followed-up at four time points over a two year period. POINT will collect information on demographics, physical and medication use history, pain, mental health, drug and alcohol use, non-adherence, medication diversion, sleep, and quality of life."

This could provide very helpful data.

Finally, CWCI is studying the potential impact of a Washington/Texas-like closed formulary on workers' compensation prescription drug costs in California.  I'll be fascinated to see the results.  I believe two things are nearly certain:
1) The potential savings number will be huge.
2) The fight over this in Sacramento will be even bigger. 

Michael
On Twitter @PRIUM1