Response to "Winner of the Ronald Melzack — Canadian Journal of Pain 2021 Paper of the Year Award".

The commentary of Dr. Katz and Ms. Waisman[1] misrepresents the 2017 Canadian Guideline for opioid therapy and chronic noncancer pain. The Guideline did encourage clinicians to approach patients prescribed high-dose opioid therapy to consider a voluntary trial of tapering that, in patients who elected to proceed, could be paused or discontinued based on their response. We also place a high value on patient autonomy under these circumstances (p. 1).[8] The 2017 Opioid Guideline did not introduce strict dose limits for people taking opioids. [Extracted from the article]