Primary Care Opioid Taper Plans Are Associated with Sustained Opioid Dose Reduction.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Primary care providers prescribe most long-term opioid therapy and are increasingly asked to taper the opioid doses of these patients to safer levels. A recent systematic review suggests that multiple interventions may facilitate opioid taper, but many of these are not feasible within the usual primary care practice.

Objective

To determine if opioid taper plans documented by primary care providers in the electronic health record are associated with significant and sustained opioid dose reductions among patients on long-term opioid therapy.

Design

A nested case-control design was used to compare cases (patients with a sustained opioid taper defined as average daily opioid dose of ≤ 30 mg morphine equivalent (MME) or a 50% reduction in MME) to controls (patie

SUBMITTER: D Sullivan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7080895 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature