WHO announces revision of pain management guidelines

The World Health Organization has recently announced revision process for two recently discontinued documents, “Ensuring balance in national policies on controlled substances: Guidance for availability and accessibility of controlled medicines” released in (2011) and “WHO guidelines on the pharmacological treatment of persisting pain in children with medical illnesses” released in (2012).

WHO has decided to discontinue these guidelines in light of new scientific evidence that has emerged since the time of their publication. This will also address any issues of conflicts of interest of the experts that have been raised.

Opioid overdose crisis in the USA and the risks and harms that can arise anywhere in the world from the misuse of medicines for pain management, including opioids is a serious concern. Therefore, WHO has decided to reexamine the existing two guidelines. According to the WHO both of the discontinued guidelines will be updated according to these standard procedures, as detailed in the “WHO Handbook for Guideline Development” (2nd edition).

The process for revision of the documents will include the following elements, among others:

• A call for experts will be issued, by 31 August 2019, as part of identifying potential members of the guideline development groups.


• All potential external contributors to the guideline development will be required to submit the standard WHO conflict of interest declarations. Any declared conflicts of interest will be assessed and managed according to WHO’s standard requirements.


• Two guideline development groups will be convened, one for each document.


• Members of the guideline development groups will be selected based on expertise, and regional and gender balance, after review and assessment of the declarations of interest.

The proposed scope of each guideline will be published for public comment. The scopes will include a review of the latest evidence on: (i) safety and efficacy of the use of medicines for pain in children, (ii) dependence and misuse potential, and (iii) the public health benefits and risks of different strategies for ensuring appropriate access.

For refence, visit www.who.int