Journal of opioid management
-
Little data exist on assessing pain medication utilization among lung cancer patients or on the reasons they fail to receive optimal analgesic treatment. This study evaluates those reasons and investigates perceived causes of pain among individuals with lung cancer. ⋯ Many individuals with lung cancer perceive pain from both their disease and their cancer treatment. However, some study respondents did not use analgesics due to concerns of addiction, cost, or their healthcare providers not recommending analgesics. Medicalprofessionals providing medical management for lung cancer patients should make pain management a priority and regularly discuss pain symptoms and pain management with patients.
-
Current reports on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pain are limited to epidemiological data on neuropathic pain in HIV and most studies were conducted before the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Complex pain was reported to be highly prevalent and associated with advanced disease. ⋯ The decrease in emergency room visits and increase in use of adjuvant analgesics and compliance with primary care and nonmedication approaches for the management of pain in the 12 months subsequent to initial palliative/pain clinic appointments highlight potential improved quality of care associated with the integration of a pain management team into the primary care of persons living with HIV disease.
-
Nonmalignant chronic pain management involves an ongoing process of complex evaluations including proper patient selection, proper prescribing, and careful monitoring. In the Pain Management Refill Clinic, patients are stabilized on an opioid regimen by either a pain specialist or a primary care physician (PCP). The PCP assumes long-term prescription of the regimen and proper follow-up. The inclusion of pharmacists in the management of patients suffering from chronic pain has allowed the physicians to improve opioid prescribing, documentation, and monitoring in accordance with chronic nonmalignant pain guidelines.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Plasma cyclic guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate levels: a marker of glutamate-nitric oxide-guanyl cyclase activity?
Remifentanil-based anesthesia can lead to acute opioid tolerance and/or hyperalgesia. A low-dose intraoperative infusion of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine did not result in reduced postoperative morphine consumption after remifentanil-based anesthesia in adolescents. This study investigates the potential role of the glutamate-nitric oxide-cyclic guanosine 3'5'-monophosphate (cyclic GMP) pathway in the failure of low-dose ketamine to prevent remifentanil-induced acute opioid tolerance and/or hyperalgesia. ⋯ This study suggests that the low dose of intraoperative ketamine infused was insufficient to suppress the NMDA receptor pathway. The concentrations of plasma cyclic GMP may serve as an indirect biological marker of ketamine-induced NMDA receptor antagonism.