In the balance: No new diagnosis needed in addition to opioid use disorder to study harms associated with long‐term opioid therapy.

The authors discuss the need to assess the inability to reduce or discontinue opioids when benefits do not outweigh harms in patients on long-term opioid therapy for pain (LTOT). Topics include two forms of substance use disorders (SUD) contained in previous editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), how clinicians and patients can determine the harms and benefits LTOT for chronic pain, and the use of the term "substance use disorder" according to the DSM-5.