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Opioid Treatment Longevity Study: Interim Report
Practical Pain Management, 06/25/09

Tennant F - A preliminary review of data the authors have so far collected reveals a surprising number of 20 year plus patients. As with author's personal cases, most patients report a functional life with few complications. Why is this survey being done? Simply to determine what to expect now that about 10 million patients take opioids for pain on a regular basis. Who is going to provide the care? What type of patient may need to take opioids for life? Above all, should patient and physician alike be developing a withdrawal program or is life-time treatment acceptable? Patient and physician should know that these preliminary survey clearly shows that at least some patients can function and maintain good health after taking opioids for 20 years. Ethical problems with randomized, double blind, placebo, or fixed dose studies prohibit or greatly limit any other types of long-term studies. After all, is a severe pan patient really going to take a placebo for 10 to 20 years to give us some "definitive" answers? At this point the authors request and solicit additional physicians and patients for this study.

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