Expert opinion on drug safety
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It is estimated that one-fifth of adult patients are treated with polypharmacy (five or more drugs) and the prevalence of this phenomenon in the elderly is even higher, ranging from 30% to 70%, even reaching 90% in residents of residential aged care facilities. Polypharmacy in the elderly increases the risk of adverse reactions, inappropriate prescriptions, drug interactions, number of hospitalizations, costs, and even death. In a recent systematic review, the authors proposed defining deprescribing as 'the process of withdrawal of inappropriate medication supervised by a health care professional with the goal of managing polypharmacy and improving outcomes'.
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Expert Opin Drug Saf · Jan 2015
EditorialThe safety of liposome bupivacaine 2 years post-launch: a look back and a look forward.
The need for better post-surgical pain management continues to be unmet, despite clinicians' awareness and concern for many years. Opioids remain the standard of care because of their analgesic efficacy; however, opioid use is often associated with adverse effects and poor patient outcomes. Multimodal analgesic regimens have recently been endorsed as a way to provide adequate post-surgical pain control while reducing opioid consumption. ⋯ Based on the available clinical trial data compiled to date, as well as the author's review of publicly available post-marketing safety information, liposome bupivacaine may be a viable addition to currently available therapeutic options for post-surgical analgesia while reducing potential risks associated with use of opioid analgesics, and may represent a useful addition to the multimodal analgesic modalities currently used for post-operative pain management. The potential for its use in other areas is also being investigated. The purpose of this review is to examine the currently available post-marketing safety information on liposome bupivacaine.
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There is some evidence for a partial opioid switching or an 'add on' approach to opioid dosing strategies. Preclinical and clinical findings suggest different activation profiles for the stimulation of the mu subtypes, raising the questions about what might occur with combinations of these substances. In the postoperative setting, it seems that the analgesic effect of the combination at equivalent doses is similar to that produced by the individual components, not adding particular advantages. ⋯ In chronic pain, information is still in the infancy, but opioid combination therapy may have greater advantages in improving the opioid response. The possibility to clinically translate opioid combinations into practice, as demonstrated in some animal models, depends on a broad number of factors implicated in the pain process. More research is needed to better elucidate these issues in the near future.