The Clinical journal of pain
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Opioid medications are an important tool in the management of pain and have been used in clinical practice for centuries. However, due to the highly addictive nature of this class of medications coupled with the life-threatening side effect of respiratory depression, opioid misuse has become a significant public health crisis worldwide. Children and adolescents are at risk for opioid misuse, and early detection is imperative to facilitate treatment and improve outcomes. This review will address the current state of opioid misuse and treatment in children and adolescents in the United States.
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Review Comparative Study
From Tramadol to Methadone: Opioids in the Treatment of Pain and Dyspnea in Pediatric Palliative Care.
More than 15,000 children die annually in the United States due to an underlying life-limiting disease and the majority of those children experience distressing symptoms, which are not adequately relieved, such as pain and dyspnea. Multimodal analgesia, that is multiple agents, interventions, rehabilitation, psychological modalities, and integrative (nonpharmacologic) therapies, act synergistically for more effective pediatric pain and symptom control with fewer side effects than a single analgesic or modality. However, opioids, such as morphine, fentanyl, hydromorphone, oxycodone, and methadone (in the United Kingdom: diamorphine) remain the mainstay medication to effectively treat pain and dyspnea in children with serious illness. ⋯ Tramadol appears to play a key role in treating episodes of inconsolability in children with progressive neurologic, metabolic, or chromosomally based condition with impairment of the central nervous system. However, the recent 2017 United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning against pediatric use of tramadol does not seem to be based on clinical evidence, and therefore puts children at risk for unrelieved pain or increased respiratory depression.
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Neuraxial-spinal and epidural-administration of opioids can be an effective method for controlling pain for children in a number of clinical settings. Understanding the basic pharmacologic and logistical concepts will make it easier for pediatricians to advocate for their patients, and support patients and families when circumstances suggest that neuraxial opioid treatment is appropriate. This review article summarizes the basic concepts of pharmacology, drug choice, side effects, and complications as well as situations in which neuraxial opioids are appropriate in children.
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The objective of this study was to estimate the national burden of school absenteeism associated with pain among 6 to 17-year-old children in the United States. ⋯ Associations between pain and school absenteeism highlight the need for interventions aimed at improving school attendance among children with pain.
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The increase in opioid-related deaths in the United States (and other countries) has prompted a national debate in medicine about the appropriateness of opioids for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, and specifically in children, if medical opioid use causes or increases the risk of opioid use disorder (OUD) later in life. Some in the medical community and in government advocate withholding opioids from children after an arbitrary number of days of treatment, regardless of diagnosis. Here, I argue that opioid experimentation and misuse is no more common in children and adolescents today than 2 or 3 decades ago, that there is no compelling evidence that appropriate medical use of opioids leads to OUD, and that the epidemic of inadequately treated pain in children remains the more compelling issue.