An online “e-health” program helped more people with chronic pain reduce their opioid medications and pain intensity than a control group that had only regular treatment in a recent clinical study.

In the study in the journal Pain, researchers divided about 400 participants who had been prescribed long-term opioid treatment for their pain into two groups: one received treatment as usual and another received treatment and access to a self-guided, e-health program.

Of the e-health group, more than half, 53.6%, were able to reduce their opioid medications by 15% or more after six months compared to 42.3% of patients in the control group.

“These were very encouraging findings: not only were they reducing opioids but also their pain was not becoming worse,” says lead author Marian Wilson, a Washington State University nursing associate professor.

“Some people are hesitant to stop their opioid medication because they fear their pain will increase, but we found that at least on average in this population, they could reduce their opioids a bit and not have increased pain symptoms.”

An estimated 50 million people in the US have chronic pain and about 18 million are prescribed long-term opioid treatment. Since opioid use risks include addiction and even accidental death, researchers are searching for alternatives to help these patients.

Read the full article about telehealth by Sara Zaske at Futurity.