ReviewPain2013
Opioid therapy for chronic pain in the United States: promises and perils.
Review in Pain, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 105 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
105 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Opioid prescription patterns in Germany and the global opioid epidemic: Systematic review of available evidence.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- [Long-term opioid therapy in chronic noncancer pain. A systematic review and meta-analysis of efficacy, tolerability and safety in open-label extension trials with study duration of at least 26 weeks].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2015Pooled it
- The Impact of Patient Race, Patient Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Load of Physician Residents and Fellows on Chronic Pain Care Decisions.The journal of pain · 2024Trial
- Intravenous lidocaine in the management of chronic peripheral neuropathic pain: a randomized-controlled trial.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2019Trial
- Randomized Controlled Trial of Telephone-delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Versus Supportive Care for Chronic Back Pain.The Clinical journal of pain · 2018Trial
- "It's Better in a Group Anyway": Patient Experiences of Group and Individual Acupuncture.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2018Trial
- Taking ACTION to reduce pain: ACTION study rationale, design and protocol of a randomized trial of a proactive telephone-based coaching intervention for chronic musculoskeletal pain among African Americans.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2017Trial
- Effect of Intravenous Ethanol on Capsaicin-Induced Hyperalgesia in Human Subjects.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2016Trial
- Pain volatility and prescription opioid addiction treatment outcomes in patients with chronic pain.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- Preexisting Psychiatric Risk Factors and Any and Long-Term Opioid Use in Head and Neck Cancer.JAMA otolaryngology-- head & neck surgery · 2025Article
- Opioid Use and Prescription Opioid Use Disorder: Biopsychosocial Characterisation of a Clinical Chronic Pain Cohort.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Sigma‑2 Receptor/Transmembrane Protein 97 in Pain Modulation: Tracing Historical Roots and Current Research Directions.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2025Review
- Exploring pain management preferences: a discrete choice experiment on cannabis or opioids among middle-aged and older adults.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Article
- Estimating the Cost and Carbon Output of Musculoskeletal Primary Care Management Decisions: A Retrospective Analysis of Electronic Health Records.The International journal of health planning and management · 2025Article
- The effect of workload on primary care doctors on referral rates and prescription patterns: evidence from English NHS.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2025Article
- Persistent Opioid Use Following Major Orthopedic Surgery.Current pain and headache reports · 2025Review
- Can social pain be medicated away? A pilot study on everyday discrimination and its exacerbation of opioid misuse risk in people of color with chronic pain.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Investigating Demographic Barriers Toward Virtual Reality Pain Efficacy in Clinical Trials: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study.Journal of medical extended reality · 2025Article
- Impact of Prescription Opioid Detoxification on Quality of Life and Pain Levels.Clinics and practice · 2024Article
- Preliminary Validation of a General Factor Model of Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions.The journal of pain · 2024Article
45 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Opioid therapy offers the promise of reducing the burden of chronic pain in not just individual patients, but among the broad population of patients with chronic pain. Randomized trials have demonstrated that opioid therapy for up to 12-16weeks is superior to placebo, but have not addressed longer-term use. In the United States, opioid sales have quadrupled during 2000-2010, with parallel increases in opioid accidental overdose deaths and substance abuse admissions. Clinical use of long-term opioid therapy is characterized by a pattern of adverse selection, where high-risk patients are prescribed high-risk opioid regimens. This adverse selection may link these trends in use, abuse, and overdose. Long-term opioid therapy appears to be associated with iatrogenic harm to the patients who receive the prescriptions and to the general population. The United States has, in effect, conducted an experiment of population-wide treatment of chronic pain with long-term opioid therapy. The population-wide benefits have been hard to demonstrate, but the harms are now well demonstrated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.