Articles: opioid-analgesics.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2021
Professionals', patients' and families' views on the use of opioids for chronic breathlessness: A systematic review using the framework method and pillar process.
In combination with non-pharmacological interventions, opioids may safely reduce chronic breathlessness in patients with severe illness. However, implementation in clinical practice varies. ⋯ There are significant barriers and enablers to the use of opioids for the symptomatic reduction of chronic breathlessness based on the knowledge, views and attitudes of clinicians, patients and families. Clinicians' interactions with patients and their families strongly influences adherence with opioid treatment regimens for chronic breathlessness. Clinicians', patients' and families' knowledge about the delicate balance between benefits and risks is generally poor. Education for all, but particularly clinicians, is likely to be a necessary (but insufficient) factor for improving implementation in practice.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Patient, Provider, and Clinic Characteristics Associated with Opioid and Non-Opioid Pain Prescriptions for Patients Receiving Low Back Imaging in Primary Care.
To describe characteristics of patients, providers, and clinics associated with opioid or non-opioid pain medication prescribing patterns for patients who received lower spine imaging in primary care clinics. ⋯ After adjusting for factors that could affect prescribing, the strongest differences observed in pain-medication prescribing were across racial categories and for patients with previous pain prescriptions. Further research is needed to understand these differences and to optimize prescribing.
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The intraoperative dosing of opioids is a challenge in routine anesthesia as the potential effects of intraoperative overdosing and underdosing are not completely understood. In recent years an increasing number of monitors were approved, which were developed for the detection of intraoperative nociception and therefore should enable a better control of opioid titration. The nociception monitoring devices use either continuous hemodynamic, galvanic or thermal biosignals reflecting the balance between parasympathetic and sympathetic activity, measure the pupil dilatation reflex or the nociceptive flexor reflex as a reflexive response to application of standardized nociceptive stimulation. ⋯ There is an ongoing discussion about the clinical relevance of nociceptive stimulation in general anesthesia and the effect on patient outcome. Initial results for individual monitor systems show a reduction in opioid consumption and in postoperative pain level. Nevertheless, current evidence does not enable the routine use of nociception monitoring devices to be recommended as a clear beneficial effect on long-term outcome has not yet been proven.
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Little is known about disparities in pain treatment associated with weight status despite prior research on weight-based discrepancies in other realms of healthcare and stigma among clinicians. ⋯ This study suggests that, relative to those with normal weight, adults with obesity are more likely to receive prescription analgesics for back pain, despite adjustments of the burden of pain. Hence, the possibility of weight-based undertreatment is not supported. These findings are reassuring because individuals with obesity generally experience a higher prevalence of back pain. The possibility of over-treatment associated with obesity, however, may warrant further investigation.