ReviewFrontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland)2021
Opioids and Chronic Pain: An Analytic Review of the Clinical Evidence.
Review in Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 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
54 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 96 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of virtual reality for pain relief in medical procedures: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Virtual Reality Assisted Non-Pharmacological Treatments in Chronic Pain Management: A Systematic Review and Quantitative Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- Dynamic flexibility of the murine gut microbiota during morphine disturbance enables escape from the stable dysbiosis that is associated with addiction-like behavior.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Genetic variation in BDNF is associated with opioid use disorder severity.Human genetics · 2026Article
- Opioids to Treat Chronic Pain in the Older Adult: A Clinical Consensus to Guarantee Safety and Avoid Adverse Events.Drugs & aging · 2026Review
- From controversy to clinical evidence: the evolving role of cannabis in pain therapy.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- A Portable, Patient-Possessed Health Record: Architecture for Care Coordination as an Alternative to Centralized Data Aggregation.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Opioid- and NMDA-receptor-dependent neural plasticity mediates long-term analgesia from motor cortical stimulation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Differential Effects of Turmeric Bioactive Compounds on Neuroinflammation and Mitochondrial Homeostasis in Brain Regions in a Rodent Model of Neuropathic Pain.Metabolites · 2026Article
- Updating UK clinical guidelines to incorporate the placebo effect in peri-operative care: challenges and opportunities.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Adenosine AFrontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Effects of Music Intervention on Pain, Mood, Sleep, and Heart Rate Variability in Patients with Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Intraoperative Nociception Monitoring Using the NoL Index: Phase-Specific Assessment of Nociceptive Responses During Spinal Surgery.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Opioid consumption after lower limb amputation in Medicare beneficiaries.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Article
- Psilocybin and Chronic Pain: A New Perspective for Future Pain Therapists?Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Wireless, battery-free, remote photoactivation of caged-morphine for photopharmacological pain modulation without side effects.Biosensors & bioelectronics · 2025Article
- Opiophobia: Misinformation, Misconceptions, Misrepresentations, Perspectives, and Consequences.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2025Review
- Barriers to Improving Pain Management in the Emergency Department: Lessons from a Lean-Driven Quality Improvement Initiative.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
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 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We conducted an analytic review of the clinical scientific literature bearing on the use of opioids for treatment of chronic non-cancer pain in the United States. There is substantial, albeit not definitive, scientific evidence of the effectiveness of opioids in treating pain and of high variability in opioid dose requirements and side effects. The estimated risk of death from opioid treatment involving doses above 100 MMED is ~0.25%/year. Multiple large studies refute the concept that short-term use of opioids to treat acute pain predisposes to development of opioid use disorder. The prevalence of opioid use disorder associated with prescription opioids is likely <3%. Morbidity, mortality, and financial costs of inadequate treatment of the 18 million Americans with moderate to severe chronic pain are high. Because of the absence of comparative effectiveness studies, there are no scientific grounds for considering alternative non-pharmacologic treatments as an adequate substitute for opioid therapy but these treatments might serve to augment opioid therapy, thereby reducing dosage. There are reasons to question the ostensible risks of co-prescription of opioids and benzodiazepines. As the causes of the opioid crisis have come into focus, it has become clear that the crisis resides predominantly in the streets and that efforts to curtail it by constraining opioid treatment in the clinic are unlikely to succeed.
Indexed as
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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.