Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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We aimed to determine if opioid risk reduction initiatives including dose reduction and risk mitigation strategies for chronic noncancer pain patients receiving chronic opioid therapy (COT) had a differential impact on average daily opioid doses of COT patients at higher risk for opioid-related adverse outcomes compared with lower-risk patients. ⋯ Using clinical policy initiatives in a health care system, dose reductions were achieved among COT patients at higher risk for opioid-related adverse outcomes that were at least as large as those among lower-risk patients.
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This study investigates the characteristics and trends of medication errors involving analgesic medications. ⋯ Analgesic-related medication errors are common, and although most do not result in clinical consequences, they can have serious adverse outcomes. Initiatives associated with the decrease in acetaminophen-related medication errors among young children merit additional research and potential replication as a model combining government policy and multisectoral collaboration.
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To evaluate the prevalence of burnout among physicians treating patients with chronic pain and to assess the potential relationships between the presence of burnout and patients' clinical outcomes such as pain relief, satisfaction with pain control, and quality of life. ⋯ Our study shows a lack of negative or clinically relevant (as shown by the negligible to small effect sizes) impact of burnout on patient-reported outcomes (namely, pain relief, satisfaction, and quality of life) in patients with chronic pain who are treated by pain medicine physicians.