SynthesisSubstance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy2017
Chronic pain and opioid misuse: a review of reviews.
Synthesis in Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 101 papers, 3 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.
Addressing the Risks of Long-Term Opioid Therapy in Chronic Noncancer Pain: A National, Multicenter, and Observational Cross-sectional Study in South Korea
Feasibility of Using Holographic Memory Resolution® (HMR) in Patients/Clients With Pain
The Effect of Pain Neuroscience Education in Masters PA Medicine Education
Who cites it
101 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 190 citations in OpenAlex.
- Enhancing Chronic Non-Cancer Pain Management: A Systematic Review of Mindfulness Therapies and Guided Imagery Interventions.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Pooled it
- Opioid agonist treatment for people who are dependent on pharmaceutical opioids.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Strategies to Identify Patient Risks of Prescription Opioid Addiction When Initiating Opioids for Pain: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2019Pooled it
- Differential Impacts of Methadone and Buprenorphine/Naloxone on Pain-Related Outcomes Among People With Non-Heroin Opioid Use Disorder: Secondary Analyses From a Pragmatic Canadian Multisite Trial.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Trial
- Inter-individual divergence in thresholds for detecting opioid effects: Within-subject human laboratory evidence of a testable behavioral phenotype.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- Mental Health Distress Is Associated With Higher Pain Interference in Patients With Opioid Use Disorder Stabilized on Buprenorphine or Methadone.Substance use & addiction journal · 2024Trial
- Gender differences in PTSD severity and pain outcomes: Baseline results from the LAMP trial.PloS one · 2024Trial
- Correlates of days of medication for opioid use disorder exposure among people living with HIV in Northern Vietnam.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Trial
- French National Guidelines for the Appropriate Use of Opioids: Analgesia, Opioid Use Disorder, and Overdose Prevention-Part 1: Methodology and Pain Management.Pain and therapy · 2026Article
- Self-reported cannabis use to manage opioid withdrawal symptoms and reductions in opioid use among people who use unregulated opioids: a cross-sectional analysis.Journal of cannabis research · 2026Article
- Nano-Enhanced Optical Delivery of Multi-Characteristic Opsin Gene for Spinal Optogenetic Modulation of Pain.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Optimizing Opioid Use in Pain Management: A Comprehensive Review of Clinical Benefits, Risks, and Dependence.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
- Nature exposure reduces self-reported pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- Efficacy and safety of the CaPain reports · 2025Review
- Associations Between Social Determinants of Health and Opioid-Use Disorder Among Chronic Pain Patients From a Multi-Institutional Dataset.Anesthesia and analgesia · 2025Article
- How to ESCAPE from Pain? An Observational Study on Improving Pain and Quality of Life with the CannamedicalAdvances in therapy · 2025Observational
- Opioid Use and Prescription Opioid Use Disorder: Biopsychosocial Characterisation of a Clinical Chronic Pain Cohort.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Integrating chronic pain management into care for patients with opioid use disorder.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025Article
41 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
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe crisis of prescription opioid (PO) related harms has focused attention toward identifying and treating high-risk populations. This review aims to synthesize systematic reviews on the epidemiology and clinical management of comorbid chronic pain and PO or other substance misuse.
methodsA systematic database search was conducted to identify systematic reviews published between 2000 and 2016. Eligible studies were systematic reviews related to chronic non-cancer pain and PO or other substance misuse. Evidence from the included reviews was synthesized according to epidemiology and clinical management themes.
resultsOf 1908 identified articles, 18 systematic reviews were eligible for final inclusion. Two meta-analyses estimated the prevalence of chronic non-cancer pain in individuals using POs non-medically to be approximately 48% to 60%, which is substantially higher than the prevalence of chronic non-cancer pain in general population samples (11% to 19%). Five systematic reviews estimated the rates of PO or other opioid use in chronic pain populations with substantial variation in results (0.05% to 81%), likely due to widely varying definitions of dependence, substance use disorder, misuse, addiction, and abuse. Several clinical assessment and treatment approaches were identified, including: standardized assessment instruments; urine drug testing; medication counts; prescription drug monitoring programs; blood level monitoring; treatment agreements; opioid selection; dosing and dispensing strategies; and opioid agonist treatment. However, the reviews commonly noted serious limitations, inconsistencies, and imprecision of studies, and a lack of evidence on effectiveness or clinical utility for the majority of these strategies.
conclusionOverall, current systematic reviews have found a lack of high-quality evidence or consistent findings on the prevalence, risk factors, and optimal clinical assessment and treatment approaches related to concurrent chronic pain and substance misuse. Given the role of systematic reviews in guiding evidence-based medicine and health policy, there is an urgent need for high-quality primary research to guide future systematic reviews to address the escalating epidemic of harms related to chronic pain and substance misuse.
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.