Articles: opioid.
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Kratom is an herb indigenous to Southeast Asia with psychoactive opioid compounds, often used as a treatment for chronic pain or opiate withdrawal symptoms. It is legally and readily available via Internet sales and has been identified as an emerging drug of abuse in the United States. ⋯ At lower doses, kratom acts as a stimulant, while at higher doses, it produces analgesia and euphoria. Here, we describe the successful management of kratom overdose and withdrawal in a young man with negative toxicology screens.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Treatment With Naloxegol Versus Placebo: Pain Assessment in Patients With Noncancer Pain and Opioid-Induced Constipation.
To summarize results from pain and opioid use assessments with naloxegol in adults with opioid-induced constipation (OIC) and chronic noncancer pain. ⋯ Centrally mediated opioid analgesia was maintained during treatment with naloxegol in patients with noncancer pain and OIC.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2018
The impact of therapeutic opioid agonists on driving-related psychomotor skills assessed by a driving simulator or an on-road driving task: A systematic review.
Driving cessation is associated with poor health-related outcomes. People with chronic diseases are often prescribed long-term opioid agonists that have the potential to impair driving. Studies evaluating the impact of opioids on driving-related psychomotor skills report contradictory results likely due to heterogeneous designs, assessment tools and study populations. A better understanding of the effects of regular therapeutic opioid agonists on driving can help to inform the balance between individual's independence and community safety. ⋯ This systematic review does not identify impaired simulated driving performance when people take regular therapeutic opioid agonists for symptom control, although more prospective studies are needed.
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Review Meta Analysis
Efficacy and adverse effects of buprenorphine in acute pain management: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
Buprenorphine appears to have a ceiling effect on respiratory depression, but not analgesia in healthy young patients. However, the efficacy and side-effects of buprenorphine in the setting of acute pain are poorly characterized. The aim of this study was to characterize the analgesic efficacy and adverse effects of buprenorphine compared with morphine in the acute pain setting. ⋯ There was only one secondary outcome with an overall significant difference; buprenorphine use was associated with significantly less pruritus (OR=0.31; 95% CI=0.12-0.84; I2=6%; P=0.02). Whilst a theoretical ceiling effect may exist with respect to buprenorphine and respiratory depression, in a clinical setting, it can still cause significant adverse effects on respiratory function. However, given that buprenorphine is an equally efficacious analgesic agent, it is a useful alternative opioid because of its ease of administration and reduced incidence of pruritus.
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Renal colic is a common, acute presentation of urolithiasis that requires immediate pain relief. European Association of Urology guidelines recommend nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as the preferred analgesia. However, the fear of NSAID adverse effects and the uncertainty about superior analgesic effect have maintained the practice of advocating intravenous opioids as the initial analgesia. ⋯ In kidney stone-related acute pain episodes in patients with adequate renal function, treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs offers effective and most sustained pain relief, with fewer side effects, when compared with opioids or paracetamol.