Journal of opioid management
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To compare 24-hour postsurgical patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) in smokers and nonsmokers. ⋯ These data suggest that acute nicotine abstinence during hospitalization increases PCA opioid medication seeking but not consumption during postoperative recovery.
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To compare rates of opioid prescribing, aberrant behaviors, and indicators of substance misuse in patients prescribed long-term opioids by resident physicians or attending physicians in a general internal medicine practice. ⋯ Resident physicians at our institution are following a disproportionate number of patients on long-term opioids, many of whom exhibit aberrant behaviors and indicators of substance misuse. This underscores a need for better resident training and supervision to provide effective and safe care for patients with chronic pain.
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Opioids are the most potent centrally acting analgesic drugs for the treatment of pain. For the past years, since the discovery of spinal opioid receptors, the use of spinal opioids has been adopted in clinical practice in the hope of producing intense segmental analgesia that was devoid of the dose-limiting side effects associated with systemic opioid administration. Experimental studies have demonstrated that after their perispinal administration, liposolubility is inversely proportional to their spinal selectivity, which is higher for the most water-soluble drug, morphine, than for other more lipophilic drugs, such as fentanyl and sufentanil. ⋯ The main differences are related to their duration of action, rate of clearance, and the pathways by which the drugs reach their receptors in the brain. In general, lipophilic opioids produce short-term analgesia (1-4 hours), which is very useful for immediate postoperative pain. However, morphine produces intense analgesia for up to 24 hours with doses as low as 100 μg.
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Although cancer elicits an array of physical and emotional symptoms, pain is often identified as the most distressing. Cancer pain may result from the primary tumor, metastasis, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or medical comorbidities. Although treatment with opioid analgesics is accepted as appropriate therapy for cancer-related pain, under treatment may persist among certain patients. ⋯ Thus, when faced with complaints of uncontrolled pain, clinicians must consider a differential diagnosis of tolerance, disease progression, addiction, pseudoaddiction, chemical coping, or even criminal behavior. This article explores the cognitive, behavioral, and physiological correlates of opioid addiction that may impact cancer pain management. It also discusses risk reduction strategies for opioid misuse and research directions that may lead to improved clinical outcomes in these patients.