• Yosuke Sugiyama, Nobuhiro Sakamoto, Masahiro Ohsawa, Mami Onizuka, Kyoko Ishida, Yuki Murata, Ayaka Iio, Koji Sugano, Ken Maeno, Hiromitsu Takeyama, Tatsuo Akechi, and Kazunori Kimura.
• 1 Division of Psycho-oncology and Palliative Care, Nagoya City University Hospital , Nagoya, Japan .
• J Palliat Med. 2016 Jul 12.

BackgroundCancer-related neuropathic pain is resistant to treatment with multiple medications and results in reduced patient quality of life.ObjectiveThe aim was to find a new curative to treat neuropathic pain without using adjuvant analgesics.DesignThis was a retrospective study that used the FACES Pain Scale (FPS) to measure pain intensity and pain relief.Setting/SubjectsTwenty-eight inpatients who were treated with other strong opioids and who consulted the palliative care team about their pain relief.ResultsIn 22 (78.6%) out of 28 patients who successfully switched to methadone from other strong opioids, such as oxycodone and fentanyl, within two weeks, the mean FPS score was significantly reduced from 4.43 to 1.86, and methadone switching either reduced the number of prescriptions or stopped them entirely in 12 out of 17 (70.5%) patients who had used adjuvant analgesics before switching to methadone.ConclusionsThese results suggest that opioid switching to oral methadone not only achieves pain relief but also curtails substantial adjuvant analgesic use.

13 keywords...

hide…