‘Like a crash diet’: Why tapering opioids can go wrong
New research highlights the risks of tapering too quickly, says 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.
Their study of patient records for 110,000 US adults using long-term opioid therapy found rapid tapering was associated with a 70% increased risk of overdose.
It was also linked with a twofold increased risk of mental health crisis and a threefold increased risk of a suicide attempt.
