After more than a year of research, public hearings, and consideration of nearly 3,000 comments filed by physician organizations, patients, and others, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September altered the labeling of extended-release and long-acting opioid analgesics to place a greater emphasis on the medications’ safety risks. The action falls far short of the strict limits on the dosage and duration of opioid therapy for patients’ noncancer pain that were proposed by advocacy groups last year.

My latest, published in the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Pain Medicine Network newsletter. Read the whole shebang.