Competing interests: No funding was received to conduct this review. The BMJ has judged that there are no disqualifying financial ties to commercial companies. The authors declare the following other interests: SM holds a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Health Professional Research Early Career Fellowship (APP1158463). SM and CL conducted an investigator initiated NHMRC funded trial (PRECISE) published in NEJM in 2017, for which Pfizer Australia provided investigational product only. SE is CI and PI of National Institute for Health Research studies as well as industry sponsored studies. He is chair of the Specialised Pain Clinical Reference Group at NHS England. SE prescribes gabapentinoids as part of his clinical practice. Neither he nor his institution have received funding from the pharmaceutical industry in relation to this or any other work. He consults for manufacturers of neuromodulation devices including Medtronic, Saluda Medical, and Mainstay Medical. SE and MU are co-chief investigator and co-investigator on a UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded trial of opioid withdrawal ISRCTN49470934. MU is chief investigator or co-investigator on multiple previous and current research grants from the UK NIHR, Arthritis Research UK, and is a co-investigator on grants funded by the Australian NHMRC. He is an NIHR senior investigator. He has received travel expenses for speaking at conferences from the professional organisations hosting the conferences. He is a director and shareholder of Clinvivo Ltd, which provides electronic data collection for health services research. He is part of an academic partnership with Serco Ltd related to return to work initiatives. He is a co-investigator on two NIHR funded studies that receive additional support from Stryker Ltd. He has accepted honorariums for teaching/lecturing from a consortium for advanced research training in Africa. He was an editor of the NIHR journal series, and a member of the NIHR Journal Editors Group, for which he received a fee. Further details of The BMJ policy on financial interests are here: https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors/forms-policies-and-checklists/declaration-competing-interests