Doctors Are Increasingly Tapering Patients From Opioid Medications

The opioid crisis is serious, but cutting people off too quickly carries risks. A new study out this month shows that doctors are increasingly tapering their patients off powerful opioid medications, perhaps so fast that they are putting them at risk. Results of the study, "Trends and Rapidity of Dose Tapering Among Patients Prescribed Long-term Opioid Therapy, 2008-2017," were published by the journal JAMA on November 15. "We wanted to understand how often opioid dose tapering happens, how ra...