Research work · 2017
A 1980 Letter on the Risk of Opioid Addiction
Pamela T M Leung, Erin M. Macdonald, Matthew B. Stanbrook, Irfan A. Dhalla, David Nelson Juurlink
New England Journal of Medicine
Abstract
A five-sentence letter published in the Journal in 1980 has been heavily cited as evidence that long-term opioid therapy has seldom been associated with addiction. Of the 608 citations, 72.2% used the letter uncritically as evidence that such addiction was rare.
DOI: 10.1056/nejmc1700150