Clarifying Information Regarding Professor Kevin Vowles’ Study on Rates of Opioid Misuse, Abuse & Addiction in Chronic Pain[1]
The peer-reviewed 2015 study by Professor Kevin Vowles has been inaccurately reported. The following information properly reflects the study’s actual conclusions and intent.
The Vowles report is an evidence-based study generated from an assessment of available data. Professor Vowles and his co-authors reviewed relevant scientific literature and performed a data synthesis of extant literature to calculate best estimates regarding rates of these opioid-related problems in persons using opioids as part of a prescribed treatment regimen for chronic pain. Professor Vowles collated the studies in the report without any agenda or ulterior motive, and the data were extracted in a scientifically appropriate manner.
Professor Vowles has stressed regularly when publicly discussing this work that the use of the report without a clear understanding of relative strengths and weaknesses in the data creates a risk of misinterpretation.
Selectively quoting from the report can lead, and has led, to incorrect conclusions being drawn.
The specific finding, highlighted in the abstract, that rates of addiction in the studies reviewed ranged from 8-12%, does not indicate that opioid use carries an 8-12% risk of developing addiction.
The Vowles report makes no comment on the issues of whether opioids are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
