Articles: neuropathic-pain.
-
J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Dec 2020
Clinical Tolerability and Safety of Tramadol in Hospitalized Patients.
Tramadol is a schedule IV, monoaminergic and μ-opioid-receptor analgesic with unique pharmacology properties. Though it is well established and widely utilized, there is little guidance on tramadol's place in therapy, including tolerability, safety and monitoring guidelines. Retrospective chart review of 250 patients who received oral tramadol during their hospitalization from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. ⋯ The longer that patients were on tramadol and the more doses they received during their inpatient stay, the greater risk of a severe drug-drug interaction (p < 0.05; R 0.29). In hospitalized patients, the risk of major and severe drug-drug interactions with tramadol increased with dose and duration. Hospital medicine, bone marrow transplant, and emergency medicine teams predominantly used tramadol.
-
Journal of anesthesia · Dec 2020
Tapentadol is effective in the management of moderate-to-severe cancer-related pain in opioid-naïve and opioid-tolerant patients: a retrospective study.
Tapentadol is a dual-acting mu-opioid receptor agonist and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor with non-inferior analgesic efficacy to oxycodone and better gastrointestinal tolerability than full mu-opioid receptor agonists. Tapentadol is approved for cancer pain in Japan; however, real-world evidence on tapentadol's effectiveness and safety for cancer-related pain in Japan is limited. ⋯ Tapentadol is effective and well tolerated in opioid-naïve and opioid-tolerant patients with cancer pain of varying pathophysiology, including those with nociceptive and/or neuropathic components. Tapentadol may be considered for first-line use in moderate-to-severe cancer-related pain.
-
J Neuroimmune Pharmacol · Dec 2020
Review Meta AnalysisAnalgesic Effects of Cannabinoids for Chronic Non-cancer Pain: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with Meta-Regression.
There is growing interest in using cannabinoids for chronic pain. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to evaluate the analgesic efficacy and adverse effects of cannabinoids for chronic non-cancer pain. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL and clinicaltrials.gov were searched up to December 2018. ⋯ The GRADE level of evidence was low to moderate. Pain intensity of chronic non-cancer patients was reduced by cannabinoids consumption, but effect sizes were small. Efficacy for neuropathic and non-neuropathic pain was similar.
-
The term "mixed pain" is increasingly applied for specific clinical scenarios, such as low back pain, cancer pain and postsurgical pain, in which there "is a complex overlap of the different known pain types (nociceptive, neuropathic, nociplastic) in any combination, acting simultaneously and/or concurrently to cause pain in the same body area." Whether mixed pain is the manifestation of neuropathic and nociceptive mechanisms operating simultaneously or concurrently, or the result of an entirely independent pathophysiological mechanism - distinct from nociceptive, nociplastic and neuropathic pain - is currently unknown. At present, the diagnosis of mixed pain is made based on clinical judgement following detailed history-taking and thorough physical examination, rather than by formal confirmation following explicit screening or diagnostic criteria; this lack of formalized screening or diagnostic tools for mixed pain is problematic for physicians in primary care, who encounter patients with probable mixed pain states in their daily practice. ⋯ The authors propose the use of nine simple key questions, which will provide the practicing clinician a framework for identifying the predominant pain mechanisms operating within the patient. A methodical, fairly rapid, and comprehensive assessment of a patient in chronic pain - particularly one suffering from pain with both nociceptive and neuropathic components - allows validation of their experience of chronic pain as a specific disease and, importantly, allows the institution of targeted treatment.
-
Recent years have seen a dramatic escalation of off-label prescribing for gabapentin and pregabalin (gabapentinoids) owing in part to generic versions of each being released over the past two decades, but also in part as a response to increasing calls for multimodal and non-opioid pain management strategies. In this context, several recent articles have been published alleging widespread misuse, with speculations on the unappreciated addictive potential of the gabapentinoid class of drugs. Reports of a 1% population-level abuse prevalence stem from a single internet survey in the UK, and the vanishingly small adverse event outcomes data do not support such frequency. In this targeted narrative review, we aim to disabuse pain physicians and other clinicians, pharmacists, and policymakers of both the positive and negative myths concerning gabapentinoid medications. ⋯ Gabapentinoids remain a vital tool in the pain physician's multimodal armamentarium, but these drugs may not be effective in every clinical situation. Individuals with central sensitization and pain associated with slow-wave sleep deficits and potentially persons with comorbid addictions may benefit the most. The gabapentinoids appear to possess no addictive potential on their own, based on laboratory and clinical data, but they may be abused by persons with opioid use disorders; consequently, cautious risk stratification must take place.