| Summary: | Opioid analgesics are used widely in the treatment of chronic pain. The majority of evidence, however, is from studies on short term use, and opioids are associated with individual adverse events of sedation, cognitive slowing, respiratory depression, overdose, and substance dependence. Upward trends of prescription of opioids have been associated with increased reports of opioid-related deaths, addiction, and drug diversion. It, therefore, is important that opioid prescription be tailored appropriately to need. Long-acting opioids have been recommended for the management of chronic pain to improve compliance. A 2011 descriptive systematic Drug Class Review (Carson 2011) identified 10 trials from fair to poor quality that compared long-acting opioids with each other, but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that any one was superior. The authors found no significant difference in measures of pain relief or function in trials of long-acting opioids with the exception of two poor-quality open-label trials. This rapid response report reviews recent research comparing long-acting opioids, such as morphine, hydromorphone, oxycodone, and fentanyl, in adults with chronic non-cancer pain
|
|---|