| Combining opioids and benzodiazepines | “Clinicians should avoid prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines concurrently whenever possible.” | “If clinically indicated, co-prescription should be managed and coordinated by physicians...who have knowledge, training, and experience in co-prescribing benzodiazepines with opioids.” |
| Opioid dosage | Avoid prescribing more than the equivalent of 90 milligram of morphine “carefully justify a decision” to do so. | “The risk-benefit balance for opioid management may vary for individual patients...the clinician should maintain caution with higher doses in general.” |
| How long opioids should be prescribed | For patients in acute pain, “Three days or less will often be sufficient; more than seven days will rarely be needed.” | “Clinicians should be able to use their clinical judgement to determine opioid duration for their patients.” |
| What we know about prescribing opioids for chronic pain | “No evidence shows a long-term benefit of opioids in pain and function versus no opioids for chronic pain with outcomes examined at least 1 year later.” | “There is an absence of high-quality data on the duration of opioid effectiveness for chronic pain, which has been interpreted as a lack of benefit.” |
