McKnight's March 8, 2024
The way older people with chronic pain view opioid use differs from the way their primary care doctors see it, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.
When older adults were asked about the risks of using opioids in the long term, they were more concerned about becoming addicted to the medications, while doctors were more concerned about adverse events like falling, the authors said.
Some other takeaways: Doctors in the study said tapering off the medications is usually warranted, but conversations about deprescribing the medications were often unsuccessful, according to the interview-based study. Older adults and doctors did agree that seeing opioids as a last-resort treatment was OK, the report stated.
In the study, researchers interviewed...
Today's Sponsors
Today's Sponsor