Study: Opioid Tapering Linked to Overdoses, Psych Issues in Long-Term, High-Dose Users

Tapering some users off opioids can lead to an increased risk in overdoses and mental health issues such as suicidal thinking, according to a University of California, Davis, study. For patients who were prescribed “stable, long-term, higher-dose opioid therapy,” researchers found that tapering was associated with a heightened risk of misuse or developing physiological issues, according to the study released Tuesday. The study, which used data on more than 113,000 patients between 2008 and 2019, comes as clinicians, pain management experts and injured-worker advocates are cr...