{
  "id": 12657852,
  "title": "Years of opioid use do not improve chronic back pain, study finds",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/years-of-opioid-use-do-not-improve-chronic-back-pain-study-finds",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-07T15:20:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-years-opioid-chronic-pain.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Taking opioids for years does not seem to reduce pain or improve functioning in people with chronic back pain, according to a new Northwestern University study that compared 70 long-term opioid users with 70 similar patients not taking opioids.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}