R Street Policy Paper: Opioid use for chronic pain management is often essential and appropriate
In a new policy paper, R Street Senior Fellow and Harm Reduction Policy Director, Carrie Wade and University of Minnesota Director of the Center for Pain Research, Cory J. Goracke-Postle examine chronic pain management and today’s opioid crisis. They go on to make the case for harm reduction strategies aimed at chronic pain management in the midst of the opioid epidemic.
The paper argues that proper chronic pain management must not only remain a priority, but also that opioid use is often essential and appropriate during treatment. In fact, measures to reduce opioid prescriptions are likely to put chronic pain patients at risk of improper or inadequate pain management, which could exacerbate the opioid epidemic in other ways, such as illicit drug use in pursuit of pain relief.
The complexity of the opioid epidemic means that solutions that take a singular approach are likely to fail. Thoughtful, data-driven harm reduction approaches for opioid use in the treatment of chronic pain likely offer more realistic solutions. Indeed, the paper concludes, “with strategic design and implementation, harm reduction strategies hold promise to have a significant positive impact when applied to the use of opioids in the treatment of chronic pain.”