The AHRQ has not publicly disclosed the authors of the draft report, and only acknowledged in a statement to PNN that “the OHSU team is comprised of several experts who draw upon diverse experience and expertise in pain management.” Their final report is expected in January 2020.

In addition to his work on the CDC guideline, Chou has authored numerous articles on pain management in peer-reviewed medical journals and has led research efforts for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, World Health Organization and the American Pain Society. But Chou’s involvement in the AHRQ study has caused some alarm among patient advocates, who believe he and the agency are biased against prescription opioids.

“The agency is operating under a political agenda that has little to do with medical evidence or truth,” said Richard “Red” Lawhern, PhD, a patient advocate with the Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain. “The report is fatally flawed and must be immediately withdrawn without replacement. AHRQ owes the public and millions of people in pain a public apology for its malfeasance and misdirection.”

PROP Collaboration

Most health researchers keep a low profile and try to avoid controversy, but Chou has publicly collaborated with Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP), an influential anti-opioid activist group that seeks drastic reductions in the use of opioid medication.

Chou recently co-authored an article with PROP President Dr. Jane Ballantyne and PROP board member Dr. Anna Lembke that encourages doctors to consider tapering “every patient receiving long term opioid therapy.”

Chou and his co-authors thanked PROP Executive Director Dr. Andrew Kolodny and other PROP board members for their help in drafting the article:

“Acknowledgment: The authors thank the Oregon Pain Guidance Working Group (Jane Ballantyne, Roger Chou, Paul Coelho, Ruben Halperin, Andrew Kolodny, Anna Lembke, Jim Shames, Mark Stephens, and David Tauben) for discussions about tapering and for reviewing a draft of this article.”

As PNN has reported, Kolodny, Ballantyne and Lembke have worked as paid consultants to law firms that stand to make billions of dollars from opioid litigation. Their legal work was only recently disclosed in revised conflict of interest statements.