Don’t initiate therapy with opioids for patients with chronic non-cancer pain unless non-opioid pharmacotherapy and other non-pharmacological options have been optimized.

Several non-opioid therapies (including both drug and non-drug alternatives) may achieve a similar magnitude of improvement in pain and function more safely without the potentially serious side effects of opioid therapy (e.g. harms related to dependence, addiction and overdose).

Source:

Busse JW, et al. Guideline for opioid therapy and chronic noncancer pain. CMAJ. 2017 May 8;189(18):E659-E666. PMID: 28483845.