Damaging State Legislation Regarding Opioids: The Need To Scrutinize Sources Of Inaccurate Information Provided To Lawmakers

Prevalence of Chronic Pain After Spinal Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Degenerative disc disease and low back pain are common challenges that persist even after a discectomy. However, characterizations and quantifications of these illnesses from the patients' perspective are insufficient. We aimed to perform a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis to determine the frequency of chronic pain after spinal surgery. We searched MEDLINE (PubMed), Google Scholar, and the Saudi Digital Library to retrieve research articles describing the frequency of persistent back pain, reoccurring disc herniation, and undergoing another operation following primary lumbar discectomy. We excluded articles that did not disclose the proportion of patients who experienced ongoing back or leg pain for over six months after the operation. We included 16 studies evaluating 85,643 patients. The pooled prevalence of persistent pain was 14.97% (95% confidence interval: 12.38-17.76). With all advancements in technology and operation techniques, many patients (14.97%) still have failed back surgery syndrome. Appropriate preoperative communication and multidisciplinary and coordinated treatment strategies yielded the best results.

Opioid Policy and Chronic Pain Treatment Access Experiences: A Multi-Stakeholder Qualitative Analysis and Conceptual Model

Purpose

Patients on long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) for pain have difficulty accessing primary care clinicians who are willing to prescribe opioids or provide multimodal pain treatment. Recent treatment guidelines and statewide policies aimed at reducing inappropriate prescribing may exacerbate these access issues, but further research is needed on this issue. This study aimed to understand barriers to primary care access and multimodal treatment for chronic pain from the perspective of multiple stakeholders.

Methods

Qualitative, semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with adult patients with chronic pain, primary care clinicians, and clinic office staff in Michigan. Interview questions covered stakeholder experiences with prescription opioids, opioid-related policies, and access to care for chronic pain. Interviews were coded using inductive and deductive methods for thematic analysis.

Results

A total of 25 interviews were conducted (15 patients, 7 primary care clinicians, and 3 office staff). Barriers to treatment access were attributed to six themes: (1) reduced clinic willingness to manage prescribed opioids for new patients; (2) lack of time and reimbursement for quality opioid-related care; (3) paucity of multimodal care and coordination between providers; (4) fear of liability and use of new guidelines to justify not prescribing opioids; (5) delayed prescription receipt due to prior authorization and pharmacy issues; and (6) poor availability of effective non-opioid treatments.

Conclusion

Issues of policy, logistics, and clinic-level resources converge to disrupt treatment access for patients with chronic pain, as many clinics both do not offer multimodal pain care and are unwilling to prescribe LTOT. The resulting conceptual model can inform the development of policy interventions to help mitigate these access barriers.

Tackling the overdose crisis: The role of safe supply

North America is experiencing an unprecedented overdose crisis driven by the proliferation of fentanyl and its analogues in the illicit drug supply. In 2018 there were 67,367 drug overdose deaths in the United States, and since 2016, there have been more than 14,700 overdose deaths in Canada, with most related to fentanyl. Despite concerted efforts and some positive progress, current public health, substance use treatment, and harm reduction interventions (such as widespread naloxone distribution and implementation of supervised consumption sites) have not been able to rapidly decrease overdose fatalities. In view of the persistent gaps in services and the limitations of available options, immediate scale-up of low-barrier opioid distribution programs are urgently needed. This includes "off-label" prescription of pharmaceutical grade opioids (e.g., hydromorphone) to disrupt the toxic drug supply and make safer opioids widely available to people at high risk of fatal overdose.