‘Like a crash diet’: Why tapering opioids can go wrong

New research highlights the risks of tapering too quickly, says Associate Professor Michael Vagg
Professor Michael Vagg
Associate Professor Michael Vagg.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month highlighted the potential pitfalls of tapering patients’ opioid doses.

While the message of minimising opioid use has been hammered home, evidence on the potential harms of opioid tapering has been limited, say the study authors from the University of California, Davis.