White R, et al. - In 2016, researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey of all general practitioners’ (GPs)(n=1,570) in one mixed urban and regional primary health network (PHN) in Australia, to determine the proportion of GPs who hold attitudes congruent with local pain stewardship, describe their deprescribing decisions. Further, they determined if the type of prescription opioid analgesics (POAs) influences deprescribing. Approximately half (54%) of respondent GPs agreed to reserve POAs for people with acute, cancer pain or palliative care and a third (32%) did not agree that a medication focus has limited benefits for peoples’ long-term quality of life and function. Deprescribing is less frequent among most (77%) GPs when effective alternate treatments were lacking, while various patient factors (eg, fear of weaning) were reported to decrease the likelihood of deprescribing for 25% of GPs. For a hypothetical patient, deprescribing codeine is favored compared to the equivalent opioid dose of oxycodone by a significantly higher proportion of GPs. These findings highlight the following attitudinal barriers to deprescribing: a lack of consistent approach to deprescribing opioids as a class of drugs, perceived lack of effective treatment alternatives and patient fear of deprescribing. These emphasize appropriately training and supporting GPs in how to apply the evidence in practice and how to support patients appropriately.