In September, Healio.com quoted Kevin Zacharoff, MD, in an article on how forced tapering may harm patients with chronic pain who are taking opioids. At PAINWeek 2022, he discussed how we live in an environment of increased opioid pharmacovigilance, which can cause adverse effects for the patient, including pain, stigma, and ethical dilemmas. “Patients are dependent on certain medications to function and contribute to society,” he said. “We need to think about the ethical considerations involved in tapering someone.”
Later in the month, Medscape quoted David Dickerson, MD, chair of ASA's Committee on Pain Medicine, regarding research on a new method to track fentanyl's effect on patients. “The development of a fentanyl signature on an electroencephalogram (EEG) creates an interesting avenue for sedation monitoring in patients under anesthesia in the operating room or ICU and could help us better titrate fentanyl in these settings to the optimal dose,” he said....