Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
Ensuring and Restoring Balance on Access to Controlled Substances for Medical and Scientific Purposes: Joint Statement from Palliative Care Organizations.
The central principle of "balance" represents the dual obligation of governments to establish a system of control that ensures the adequate availability of controlled substances for medical and scientific purposes while simultaneously preventing their nonmedical use, diversion, and trafficking, two primary goals of the international control system. On the one hand, although strong opioids, including morphine, are absolutely necessary for the relief of severe pain, legitimate access to opioids for pain treatment and palliative care is lacking in the majority of the world's countries. ⋯ Although nonmedical use of controlled substances poses a risk to society, the system of control is not intended to be a barrier to their availability for medical and scientific purposes, nor to interfere in their legitimate medical use for patient care. As representatives of palliative care organizations, we urge heads of state to act and to take measures to ensure and restore balanced systems in their countries and call on public health leaders and regulators to work together.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
Things to Consider When Completing an Advance Directive.
Questions from patients about pain conditions and analgesic pharmacotherapy and responses from authors are presented to help educate patients and make them more effective self-advocates. In response to a question about advance directives for a patient experiencing chronic pain, the authors discuss the importance of having legal documents in place.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialA Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial to Evaluate Intravenous Acetaminophen Versus Placebo in Patients Undergoing Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy.
Radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer is one of the most commonly performed operations in men. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of intravenous (IV) acetaminophen when added to the perioperative analgesic regimen for robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) on hospital length of stay (LOS), postoperative pain scores, and opioid consumption. In this prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, a total of 86 patients undergoing RALP were prospectively enrolled and randomly assigned to receive either 1 g IV acetaminophen (study group; n = 43) or IV placebo (n = 43) within 15 minutes following the induction of anesthesia and prior to surgical incision. ⋯ Hospital LOS was shorter in the IV acetaminophen group compared with placebo by 32% (P = .006). Median intraoperative opioid use in the IV acetaminophen group was 42 mg morphine equivalents compared with 50 mg in placebo (P = .64) and 8 mg in both groups postoperatively (P = .16). Overall, use of perioperative IV acetaminophen decreased hospital LOS without a significant difference in PACU LOS, pain scores, or opioid use.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
Comparative StudyLaxative Use in Inpatients on Oxycodone/Naloxone Prolonged Release and Oxycodone Prolonged Release for Cancer and Non-cancer Pain.
To examine the laxative prescriptions in hospital inpatients with cancer and non-cancer pain on oxycodone compared to oxycodone plus naloxone combination. ⋯ This retrospective study of hospital inpatients with cancer and non-cancer pain found that laxative use was not reduced in those on combined oxycodone/naloxone compared to oxycodone alone, suggesting that despite the interpretations of the clinical trials in the phase IV setting, the addition of naloxone had no effect on reducing laxative use.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
Natural Language Processing-Identified Problem Opioid Use and Its Associated Health Care Costs.
Use of prescription opioids and problems of abuse and addiction have increased over the past decade. Claims-based studies have documented substantial economic burden of opioid abuse. This study utilized electronic health record (EHR) data to identify chronic opioid therapy (COT) patients with problem opioid use (POU) and compared costs with those for COT patients without POU. ⋯ The largest cost difference was observed in the first month of follow-up. COT patients with POU experienced significantly higher costs compared with COT patients without POU in the first year of follow-up. The greatest difference in costs was observed around identification of POU.