Articles: opioid.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2015
Patterns of community-based opioid prescriptions in people dying of cancer.
Studies of opioid use in cancer patients have been cross-sectional or have focused on mean consumption over a specific time interval. ⋯ Patients dying of cancer require increasing doses of opioids over time; although we cannot distinguish the relative contributions of disease progression and opioid tolerance, age and certain cancers seem related to this phenomenon. Given the potentially prohibitive cost of prospective epidemiological studies, more elaborate clinical administrative databases that include regular pain assessment are necessary to determine optimal opioid use and factors associated with dose increases over time at a population level.
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There is a lot of unrelieved pain in developing countries. Here is a story from Bali, Indonesia, about a woman with advanced malignancy, who is in unbelievable agony. Expensive chemotherapy is available to her. ⋯ The woman's pain affects the whole family, endangering the family's income and the future of her children. The intervention of palliative care during part of her life gives her some relief, only for the agony to be repeated by pointless chemotherapy and neglect of the suffering during admission to the hospital. Whatever relief could be given to her was because of the intervention of a volunteer with no schooling in medicine or palliative care.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Failure of intrathecal ketorolac to reduce remifentanil-induced postinfusion hyperalgesia in humans.
In rodents, acute exposure to opioids results in transient antinociception followed by longer lasting hypersensitivity to tactile or thermal stimuli, a phenomenon termed opioid-induced hyperalgesia. This hypersensitivity can be blocked or reversed by intrathecally administered cyclooxygenase inhibitors, including ketorolac, suggesting a role for spinal prostaglandins. In surgical patients, the dose of intraoperative opioid, particularly the short-acting drug, remifentanil, is directly related to increased pain and opioid requirements for many hours postoperatively. ⋯ The primary outcome measure, area of capsaicin-induced hypersensitivity after stopping remifentanil, showed a similar increase in those receiving ketorolac as in those receiving saline. Cerebrospinal fluid prostaglandin E2 concentrations did not increase during postinfusion hyperalgesia compared with those during infusion, and they were not increased during infusion compared with those in historical controls. These data fail to support the hypothesis that acute opioid-induced hyperalgesia reflects spinal cyclooxygenase activation causing central sensitization.
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Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol · Jan 2015
ReviewFentanyl buccal tablet for the treatment of cancer-related breakthrough pain.
Fentanyl buccal tablet (FBT) (FENTORA) is indicated for the management of breakthrough pain (BTP) in patients with cancer pain and who are tolerant to ≥60 mg of oral morphine equivalents, at least with the current availability of the minimal strength of 100 μg. FBT uses the OraVescent technology to further increase the rate and extent of absorption of fentanyl. ⋯ It has been recommended that administration should be tailored to the patient's individual requirement, through dose titration starting from the lowest dose to find the effective dose. However, recent studies have demonstrated that predictable doses calculated from the basal opioid regimen are safe and more effective than doses achieved after dose titration.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2015
ReviewProfile of extended-release oxycodone/acetaminophen for acute pain.
This article provides a historical and pharmacological overview of a new opioid analgesic that boasts an extended-release (ER) formulation designed to provide both immediate and prolonged analgesia for up to 12 hours in patients who are experiencing acute pain. This novel medication, ER oxycodone/acetaminophen, competes with current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved opioid formulations available on the market in that it offers two benefits concurrently: a prolonged duration of action, and multimodal analgesia through a combination of an opioid (oxycodone) with a nonopioid component. Current FDA-approved combination analgesics, such as Percocet (oxycodone/acetaminophen), are available solely in immediate-release (IR) formulations.