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posted by martyb on Sunday June 04 2017, @03:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the content-and-context dept.

Researchers have found that a one paragraph letter to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1980 was "uncritically cited as evidence that addiction was rare with long-term opioid therapy" [emphasis in original retained]:

Canadian researchers have traced the origins of the opioid crisis to one letter published almost 40 years ago.

The letter, which said opioids were not addictive, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 1980.

Dr David Juurlink says the journal's prestige helped fuel the misguided belief that opioids were safe.

His research found that the letter was cited more than 600 times, usually to argue that opioids were not addictive.

On Wednesday, the NEJM published Dr Juurlink's rebuttal to the 1980 letter, along with his team's analysis of the number of times the letter was cited by other researchers.

The two names to blame? Dr. Hershel Jick and his assistant Jane Porter. Dr. Jick did not anticipate the misuse of his short letter:

Jick still works at Boston University School of Medicine. He told the Associated Press this week that he is "essentially mortified that that letter to the editor was used as an excuse to do what these drug companies did."

"They used this letter to spread the word that these drugs were not very addictive," he said. Jick noted that he testified as a government witness in a lawsuit some years ago concerning the marketing of pain drugs.

A 1980 Letter on the Risk of Opioid Addiction (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1700150) (DX)

Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics (DOI: 10.1056/NEJM198001103020221) (DX)


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @04:35PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @04:35PM (#520255)

    Can't we just blame this on moral decline, lazy bums and the erosion of family values like usual.

    Oh wait, it's white Republicans dying? White Trump voters? OK let's cut all their healthcare lol. At least Republicans will get to taste their own dog food that they've been putting on the menu for the last 30 years.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @04:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @04:47PM (#520262)

    We've eaten the dogfood. Now we're eating the dogs. My best advice, keep your ugly sister home!

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @06:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @06:19PM (#520305)

    You have to be more specific than that. Opioids being addictive is something new--they weren't before because doctors are never wrong, and this new addictiveness is caused by millennials, political correctness, and marijuana. Mostly millennials and marijuana. Marijuana itself makes opioids addictive. I'm sure Mr. Sessions would never lie to us about that. Of course, we wouldn't have millennials and marijuana without political correctness. So there you have it.